by Nikki Everett

Created on: December 31, 2009

Are you old enough to remember a television show called Mayberry, R.F.D? Maybe you caught a rerun of classic T.V. on Nick at Nite or some other cable channel and got caught up in wondering how the world had changed into a less ethical one since those days of Mayberry – And could the values of that time period work today?

All across America, especially in the South, you can drive outside the hustling bustle of the city and still find places where everybody knows their neighbor's name. Mayberry, North Carolina may have been a purely fictional place on the beloved Andy Griffith Show in the 60s, but the quaint rural town set the standard of family values and small town U.S.A.

Yes, somewhere, the barber shop may look just like Floyd’s on Main Street in Mayberry, with the striped pole and all. And some corner café still serves a blue plate special at lunch. It's a place where most of the citizens obey the law and practice the golden rule of doing unto others as they would have done unto them. In general, life is just simpler there.

And even though injustices happened daily, in the television version of Mayberry, justice was always swift and fair. You were never more than an hour from a good ending with a lesson learned before bedtime. It goes without saying that in any quaint morally ethical little town of that day there was still trouble with stealing, alcohol related crimes, children being mischievous, and domestic disputes because that's just life anywhere - isn’t it?

When Andy Griffith developed the character Andy Taylor for The Danny Thomas Show, he had no clue what an American icon the subsequent sitcom would become. But in those early days of the 60’s, the situational ethics in television shows of the 50s such as, Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, and Andy Griffith set the standard for teaching moral lessons to us all. Right and wrong were in black and white – Clearly defined and no gray area for dispute.

However, there is indeed a big difference between the mischief in Anytown, U.S.A. in 2009 and Mayberry in 1962. The more populated an area becomes the more serious the issues – That’s just the unfortunate reality of civilization growth without a strong sense of community and accountability.

Soon after those golden years of television the dynamics of social infrastructure started changing dramatically. Women and African Americans were growing weary of being second class citizens

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