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It sounded nothing like Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" or The Beatles'
"Let it be," nevertheless, the whistling intro to The Andy Griffith Show sticks in my memory like the biggest fish I have ever caught.

I mention fish because Andy Griffith and his son, Opie, played by Ron Howard later known as Richie Cunningham on the hit 70s television comedy "Happy Days" are strolling through the woods lugging fishing poles alongside a country lake during the opening of the weekly show.

Amidst the trees alongside the lake and the dirt country road, father and son stroll in bliss, smiling enjoying the great outdoors on a sunny country day. On a whim, Opie grabs a rock and flings it, skipping the rock along the serene lake.

As father and son stroll, in the background is the whistling opening tune to the show. So many times, I have whistled the same tune either while going fishing, while going for a stroll in a park, or while I'm just thinking about television shows from the 1960s.

When we were kids, my friends and I tried to imitate the whistle. I could never reach the same pitch and volume as on the show. I came close yet fell short of giving a sterling rendition. One or two of my friends were stronger whistlers who were able to whistle on key the entire tune from beginning to end.

We always smiled upon hearing it. The tune jarred loose a flood of show memories and good feelings. We often laughed talking about Otis the town drunk in Mayberry, who unescorted would open up the jail door after a drinking binge and would go inside the jail to sleep off his over-indulgences.

Sheriff Andy Taylor would simple say hello to Otis as Otis would close the jail door and say goodnight. This was my impression of country life. A far cry from Queens, New York City, where drunks were menaces to city life and we never laughed at them. We stood clear of their way thinking it was best to avoid them.

Yet life in Mayberry, North Carolina was different. There everyone seemed to be good hearted. Sheriff Taylor rarely had any crime in Mayberry to solve. The only constant danger to the sheriff was being accidentally shot by his bumbling, chicken-hearted deputy Sheriff Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts.

In a way Don Knotts stole the show by his fumbling ways. What made the show even funnier was that Barney Fife took himself so seriously as a law enforcement office. Standing about 5'10" and with a few rocks in his pocket weighing 100 pounds, Barney Fife would act like a hardened cop while Sheriff Taylor would play along with his deputy's pretensions.

Nevertheless all of this sitcom fun started off with the whistling. A whistling tune with the message of happiness in the air, just like the mood Sheriff Taylor and Opie are in strolling the grounds of their favorite fishing holes. The tune for me evokes happiness, just enjoying the simple life, out there in nature without a care in the world, living life at ease.

Learn more about this author, Frank Lavoine.
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