Sarah Nigbor

One of my mother’s greatest talents is citing lines from her favorite TV shows, even if they first aired 40+ years ago. Growing up, it was something I hated. She could remember the plot lines to any show and it drove me absolutely nuts when she would talk about them like they happened yesterday.

Her absolute favorite is “The Andy Griffith Show,” which she tortured me with throughout my youth and beyond. I was forced to watch reruns of the sitcom featuring Barney Fife, Opie, Aunt Bee, and of course, the charming Sheriff Andy. I hope I don’t offend any readers, but I can’t stand the hokey humor and the silly plotlines. It’s just not my thing. My mother knows this and delighted in teaching my daughter, when she was tiny, classic lines from the show to repeat for me. Now they team up on me.

Her favorite episode, which I could probably recite line-for-line against my will, is “The Pickle Story.” No one will admit that Aunt Bee makes terrible pickles, so Andy switches them out with store-bought pickles. The conundrum is she decides to enter them in the county fair. Yes, it’s a cute plot line, but not when you’ve seen it 350,000 times.

In my 20s, my friends and I went on a last-minute road trip to the ocean in North Carolina. On our way to the coast, we stopped to use the restroom in Mount Airy, NC, where Andy Griffith was born and raised. The town has capitalized on that fame and turned it into a real-life Mayberry. Ford Galaxy squad cars ferry tourists around town, like Barney drove. Visitors can go into a replica of Floyd’s Barber Shop or eat lunch at the Snappy Lunch Diner. While we did not do any of these things (I regret that now, sort of) I took photos for my mom, since she has never been there. It was ironic to me that I ended up in “Mayberry” when I’m probably the only person on earth who hates the show. Someday I’ll take her there.

As I’ve gotten older, I admit I see the draw of losing myself in old shows from my own youth. There’s a simplicity in some of them that is hard to find today. In some ways that’s good, in others it’s not. Andy Griffith doesn’t detail the things going on in time then, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis or the struggle of African Americans for civil rights. It was meant to be an escape from reality.

That’s why when I heard Saturday morning that Bob Barker had died, I was sad. I used to love watching “The Price is Right” when I was home from school sick or with my grandpa and mom in the summers (when she was home). Plinko, the Big Wheel, the Showcase Showdown, it was fun to watch and play along. Bob Barker was an icon and now he joins the list of those who are gone. “Have your pets spayed or neutered” will always be stuck in my head.

One old show my mother and I both love is “The Golden Girls.” I didn’t watch it as a child, because it was too adult, but discovered it thanks to my mom’s best friend in my late teens. The bright, 80s style kitchen, the over-the-top shoulder-pad laden fashions, the four women gathered around the table sharing stories and eating cheesecake, the clever humor – I just love it.

Whenever I turn “The Golden Girls” or “The Office” on late at night, it’s like being visited by old family members. Maybe that’s how Mom feels about Andy Griffith. We don’t have a big, close family like some people do. Characters from those shows almost feel like family members in a sense. They are there with us in the quiet hours of the night when we can’t sleep, or when I’m up late writing into the night. When I’m stressed out over my to-do list or a complicated story I’m working on, somehow those silly shows ground me and remind me that I’ll figure it out, just like I always do. I’m not sure why, but they do.

I won’t be so hard on Mom about her show. I get it.