Hello, Mayberry fans, Laura Lee Hobbs was at home last night doing her best work with her binoculars when I came over with the Digest. We discussed the Duane question about the baby twin boys being left on the sidewalk while everybody went inside the hotel to wonder about the Stranger in Town. Now, today babies left out all alone might well be cause for police action. But in the early sixties and in Mayberry where everybody knew everybody else--or just about everybody--and almost no violent crimes were committed, certainly none against children, people would feel safe enough to leave their children for a few minutes alone. After all, this is a town that came apart when a new person moved in. Granted Ed knew their names before they were introduced, but did any of you ever wonder why no one didn't just ask him before Andy did? (I know, I know, we wouldn't have had a show if they had behaved reasonably.) But it worked because these people were basically shy and set in their ways.
I was raised in a small community just like Mayberry and my parents worked all day (factory and field work) and just told my younger brother and me if we got hurt to run over to our grandparents who lived nearby. We were left all day long by ourselves and so were a number of other kids. No one would do such a thing today. But people had a different way of thinking then. I'm not excusing it. And perhaps most parents would not have gone as far as ours did in leaving their kids to cope by themselves, but we were too poor to know any different and I have to say we all got out alive. And as for me and mine...I watch 'em like a hawk. Lydia, "You don't suppose he's some kind of spook or foreign spy?" _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
