Mt. Airy was Andy Griffith’s hometown and Mayberry RFD was based on it. It is a lovely small town and they owe Andy a great deal for putting them on, and keeping them on, the map.
An interesting aside is the fact that our campground sits on property once owned by Eng and Chang Bunker, the original documented conjoined twins from Siam, thus the term Siamese twins. They were joined at the chest by a cartilaginous flap of skin in which the liver was involved. Their mother refused to risk either one’s life and refused surgery for them. They became very wealthy, moved to the US, married sisters and produced 21 children between the two families. Not sure how! They spent 3 days with one wife, 3 with the other. No one said what they did on the 7th day! Today there are over 2,000 descendants in the area. I plan to read up on them!
We went into town to visit some sights. We toured the Andy Griffith museum, the Earle Theater (the second longest live radio show just behind the Grand Ole Opry) and we plan to attend on Saturday.
The Gertrude Smith House, a real treasure,
and had lunch at Snappy’s on Main Street. We were 15 minutes late to order breakfast so we had an early lunch. People were lined up outside waiting to get in when we left.
Opened in the 1920s to serve snappy lunches to workers of Mount Airy, Snappy Lunch hasn’t changed much as visitors will find the same diner that Andy Griffith ate at as a young boy while growing up in Mount Airy.
The restaurant is famous for its pork chop sandwich, a boneless, tenderized loin chop dipped in sweet-mill batter and fried until golden crisp.
In an early episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” Andy suggested to Barney that they go to the Snappy Lunch, and Andy also mentioned the Snappy Lunch in his version of the song "Silhouettes."
Whit’s custard ended our day. We all skipped dinner that evening.
The next day Lee didn’t feel up to going out so the four us drove over to Pilot Mountain, disguised as Mount Pilot on the show. We drove up as far as we could, then climbed granite stairs to the lookout.
Our next stop was the Horne Creek Farm. This was the Hauser family farm from the 1800s and is being restored to the 1913-30 time period. It is a working farm where sheep are raised, crops are grown and sold or used in cooking demonstrations, and apples and pears are grown in orchards. There is a huge corn husking festival in the fall attended by thousands.
I saw several things I had never seen. One was a sorghum press where they made sorghum syrup with two horses turning the press and a fruit drying shed. It was much like a tobacco drying barn. They were industrious people and with 11 sons as farm hands (one daughter), they were quite successful. They have several vintage and heritage apple strains and they are propagating strains for Africa to give them crops that don’t need constant attention.
We visited the home too. Much of the furniture was donated back by the grandchildren and great grandchildren that had various pieces. When one granddaughter was questioned about how she came to have so much she said her father had it piled up to burn and she rescued it. The original handmade cradle was in the parent’s bedroom but I didn’t take a photo! I did take a photo of the docent who played this pump organ for us.
We came home to a 3 family combined dinner of chicken breasts, teriyaki chicken tenders with grilled pineapple rings, leftover pork tenderloin with cherry sauce, rice, baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, green bean salad, cole slaw, cucumbers, fruit salad and homemade chocolate chip cookies, of which I ate none!
It rained ferociously while we sat under the covered patio next to our site. It rained all night but a nice weekend is forecast for the 4th!
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