Dear Thelma Lou (Janet), and Other Mayberry Fans, I think you are soooooo right. Andy's main problem was in confronting women, though perhaps I noticed it more with Helen because his personal relationship lasted longest with her. And let's face it, the women on the show seemed to have no trouble in confronting Andy. I think he did take an almost too relaxed attitude with women when any kind of problem or trouble developed. But why was this? We know Andy is not a coward and he is certainly not a stupid person. But we also know he lost his mother when he was a baby and was raised by Aunt Bee; we know his first love Sharon deSpain left him; we also know his first wife died soon after little Opie was born. So maybe he was really scared of having a close relationship with a woman. Maybe he thought if he did anything too strong he might "hurt" the woman in his life. Perhaps, because his mother and his first wife died (really hard blows for any man to overcome) he saw all women as far more delicate than they really are. Who knows? Just some of my guesses based on a few facts and some things he has said to Opie over the years about women being a lot more sensitive than men and the way he was always trying to get Barney to treat Thelma Lou a little more honestly. I've said before that Andy acted almost "scared" of Helen. Not in the physical sense of the word. But I think it was a deep down kind of fear that maybe Andy was not even really aware of. I think Andy was really afraid that the woman he loved he was going to lose. And he tried very hard not to do anything to upset her. And that's as deep as me and Mr. Schwamp and Lydia can get. Laura Lee Hobbs, thankin' buckets back under the tables, "What do you know about love?" you can't watch out for gold trucks for 20 years and not learn something about l..o..v..e ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
