Forgive me for being a curmugeon, but...

Mayberry never existed.

I was intially raised in a small southern town and was moved away kicking and screaming at an early age and had opportunities to visit frequently.

This gave me a chance to grow up seeing a contrast between what I remembered growing up there and what I was seeing in the outside world.

I grew up watching the show as well and was struck by the absence of anyone who wasn't white.

The Mayberry town drunk was a friendly lovable coot, very unlike the drunks I knew growing up.

Not everybody liked or trusted everybody like in Mayberry. The Lutherans didn't like the Catholics, and a Jew was nowhere to be found in my little south louisiana town. They were there no doubt, just laying low out of fear of the good ole boys in the white hoods and pickup trucks.

There were thefts of property (I heard suspiscions that some of my older cousins were the culprits, but never proved)

I can guarentee you there were rapes and child molestors it was just no one talked about it.

And if you had brown skin, you weren't even considered a member of the human race and could be treated like a dog with impunity by "good respectable Christian folk".

To quote Billy Joel;
" the good ole days weren't
Always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems"