You could laugh and cry in a single sound

"The tears on my pillow bespeak the pain that is in my heart.'
                     -- Barney Fife, Class Reunion, The Andy Griffith Show - 1963

My kids will never know the innocence portrayed on The Andy Griffith Show.

Maybe it’s rose-colored glasses, but I did know that innocence, at least for a little while.

My hometown in Pennsylvania resembled Mayberry in more than a few ways: our own Barney Fife, Howard Sprague, Miss Clara, the filling station, even Aunt Bee, who lived two doors up the street from us. We even had an Otis Campbell, who was less of a drunk and more of a town oddball. Mayberry had party line and front porch gossip; I heard the same thing, almost every day.

Also, my family sat on the porch for hours at a time, made homemade ice cream, and never dreamed of missing church/Sunday School.

And at least in my mind, those in my hometown exhibited some of the Mayberry values that will forever live in syndication (forever is fitting for one of greatest shows in the history of television.

Take this sterling scene from "Man in a Hurry." Charlotte businessman Malcolm Tucker's car breaks down on a Sunday, and he can't get any help because the Sabbath is a day of rest in Mayberry. Tucker is forced to slow his pace, and this poignant and lovely moment reminds me of similar occasions on our own front porch, with a tune my own father used to sing in church. No singular scene in the history of "The Andy Griffith Show" better illustrates the afore-mentioned Mayberry values.

There are many, many reasons that many are nostalgic when thinking back to the world portrayed on the show; their towns undoubtedly had similarities. It takes many of us back to a faraway, more uncomplicated time with fewer commitments, less danger lurking outside our homes, and freedom from adult complexity and responsibilities.

And loved ones still alive.

It was a life certainly not sophisticated in the minds of many. Mayberry will never be an exotic destination.

I wonder if today’s shows, which I admittedly do not watch much, reflect present-day life and society. But I imagine folks will be nostalgic for those shows in the future as well.

But I wonder if anything will be a welcoming, comforting and endearing as Mayberry.

I suspect not.

Millions of people are saddened by the passing of Andy Griffith because the world portrayed in Mayberry is now just a thing of the past, a fond remembrance if you will.

And it's not coming back.

Which is a sad, sad thing.