Wise Words From The Past

Many of us remember the TV show, “The Andy Griffith Show”. For those of you who don’t or never saw it to begin with, the premise was that of a widowed sheriff in the small North Carolina town of Mayberry. Andy, the sheriff, had a young son Opie, (played by Ron Howard) and an Aunt Bea who lived with them and took care of Opie and Andy. Barney Fife was the deputy, a character type be sure. Each episode dealt with common problems or events that happened in homes all across America. But what was uncommon was Andy’s wisdom and calm demeanor in handling most anything that might occur. There were regulars on the show, townspeople who might have one difficulty or another that required Andy’s help and steady character. And there were guest stars who turn up portraying someone on a road trip whose car broke down, or relatives of someone in town who discovered that there was some unforeseen trouble that needed to be tended to, or, as in this case, a kindly drifter, a man some might call a hobo, or now we would call him a homeless person passing through, that was Buddy Epson’s part in this case. He told Opie about his chosen lifestyle and the young boy was intrigued and thought traveling from place to place with no responsibility to anyone might be a fun way to live. When Andy told Opie why that wasn’t as “fun” as it might look, Epson intervened and thought Andy should just let Opie decide for himself if he wanted to wander off and live on his own. Andy, being the wise parent he was, explained why he wasn’t going to do that. This is what ensued: