Men like your grandfather still exist.

Just look in the mirror.

His actions and honor color how you see the world and yourself.

The disdain many of us hold for "the way things are today" is because we all see the same thing at 5:00 pm every day.

Most of our view of the world as a whole is through the lense of the tv camera.

I had a tv reporter tell me once that people doing good for others isn't news because it's the norm.

Men like your grandfather don't make the news. They don't want to

Saying "please, and thank you", letting other people pull in front of you in traffic, holding the door for ladies and the elderly, catching the elevator door for a perfect stranger, or paying for an eldery person's lunch at McDonalds is expected behavior.

This is evidenced by the fact that it is too numerous to make the news.

Violence, etc are news because they are the abnormal. The jerk cutting off others in traffic like his NASCAR hero makes us angry because he isn't obeying the norm.

He stands out because he is abnormal.

After further thought, I have to revise my earlier statement.

Mayberry does exist not as a geographical or chronalogical event so much as an ideal (not a perfect one mind you), but an ideal to strive for.

To paraphrase Ghandi, "be the (Mayberry) you want to see in the world".

Sounds like your grandfather gave you a gift of an example to live by.