Mayberry in the Midwest 2019, Part II

Saturday morning I arrived in plenty of time to watch the parade. Mayberry in the Midwest’s parade is certainly not as long as the one at Mayberry Days but is always fun.

Maggie Peterson Mancuso and Ronnie Schell were the cast members in attendance, but George Lindsey Jr. was also a special guest.  As is so often the case with me, I did not get photos with all the folks I intended. In fact, I literally told George at the meet-and-greet dinner the night before that I wanted to be sure to get a photo with him (he was a bit busy right at that moment) and then I failed to get that done over the weekend.

My friend, Steve, helps with the organization of the festival. He decided to walk in the parade this year as the hermit Regis who came down from the hills to protest the gold standard in “Black Day for Mayberry.” Steve apparently felt he needed more hair to pull off Regis so it looks like he borrowed Mr. Schwamp’s toupé.

As always, there were many tribute artists in attendance. Since David Browning, the Mayberry Deputy has retired from doing the Mayberry festivals, Allan Newsome as Floyd the barber has had to step up and organize the shows. There were four separate tribute artist performances and they were all different. I won’t try to name them all, but a special shout out needs to go to my friend Terry Varvel who has stepped up and is doing a great job as the Barney Fife tribute artist at the festivals.

While I usually participate, albeit not that successfully, in the trivia contest since the small entrance fee goes to support the festival, I missed the beginning of it this year. In the course of administering our Mayberry Facebook group, The Gomer and Goober Pyle Comic Book Literary Guild and my activities in the Mayberry community, there are a number of people I have “met” online but never got the chance to actually meet in person. One of those people is Denny Reese who has written a book about Gomer Pyle-USMC that he hopes will be released next year. Denny asked me to contribute an essay for his book which I was happy to do. I had communicated with him many times through the internet and even spoken with him by phone on one occasion but had never actually met him. He sent me a message early afternoon that he was seated at The Mayberry Cafe so I went over to say hello. By the time I got back to the stage, they were several questions into the trivial contest so I was just an observer this year. Matt Hurley won the competition which was especially fun for me to see as Matt also was kind enough to review the upcoming Mayberry Firsts book for me.

 

While I forgot to get photos with people I knew there, I did get an important one. I finally got to meet Ron Blankenship in person, Ron is a longtime fan who I have corresponded with through the internet and missed meeting last year. I made it a point to find him this year and grab a photo.

 

When I had arrived in Danville I made it a point to park by the library. I will be giving a presentation about The Andy Griffith Show there in October and I wanted to be sure my computer would work with their system. This also enabled me to easily update the Facebook group from a cool location.

I next attended an event at which Ronnie Schell shared remembrances from his time in Hollywood and his friendship with Jim Nabors and the recently-passed Tim Conway. Ronnie is best known for playing Gomer’s buddy Duke Slater in Gomer Pyle-USMC but also appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.

After another tribute artist show and another stop at the library, I headed to the Squad Car Nationals. I attended this for the first time last year. People bring their squad car reproductions which are certainly judges on quality, but the owners also drive through a course with an assistant in the back seat who has to hop out at each station and fulfill a task that relates to an episode or some aspect of the show, such as shooting with a slingshot or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I got to see my friends Johnna, Robert, and Marsha as well as Mike and Carol before heading to the Mayberry Cafe to have dinner.