I have often wondered about Andy’s and Barney’ life in Mayberry during their young informative years. Actually we know a lot about their growing up years together in Mayberry by listening to their many conversations during the many episodes of TAGS that they shared.
Barney and Andy, while being cousins, were also best friends. They were in the same grade in school and had the same teachers. They loved there second grade teacher but had a dislike for the teacher who was “beast of the second floor”. Barney was rather sickly as a child and was so thin that he could stick his hand in a milk bottle and he was also suseptible to nose bleeds. Barney and Andy would often sleep over at each other’s homes. For some reason Andy was raised by Aunt Bee . Andy did mention one time that his father showed him old Asa’s horse pistle and that he ended up tearing his knickers with it. Neither Barney nor Andy ever mentioned brothers or sisters, so most likely they were both an only child. Perhaps this is the reason they were so very close. When Barney was quite young he had a crush on Vicky Harms. He would often offer her some of his raspberry snowcones. But every time he did she would bite off the tip of the cone, suck out all the syrup, and then give him back just the ice. This really upset Barney a lot because raspberry was his favorite flavor. Barney and Andy also sold flower seeds when they were in school. Andy once had an erector set and he would build little bridges that could be raised and lowered. One of Barney’s favorite things to do as a child was to strike matches on his Daddy’s rock and then light his Daddy’s pipe for him. Andy had some problems with a bully in Mayberry when he was a kid. Andy had a favorite fishing spot where he would sneak off to and catch lots of fish while the other kids went home empty handed. One day Hodie Snitch chased Andy away and took his spot. This went on for quite a while until Andy decided to stand up to Hodie. Hodie punched him right in the nose, but Andy just laughed at him and then lit into him and got his fishing spot back. Floyd Lawson claimed that Andy wasn’t very smart as a child because he tried to eat the shaving cream thinking it was whipped cream. Andy was quite a Devil May Care kid and he loved adventure. One time he caught a wild cat which turned out to be a very sickly and harmless creature. Andy could also real bat the ball and no matter how hard Aunt Bee threw it to him he always managed to hit it. Barney and Andy enjoyed their time at Mayberry Union High. Andy once pitched a no hitter baseball game using his famous wobble ball. The wobble ball came about as a result of a crooked finger that Andy had. Despite the fact that Andy pitched a no hitter they lost the game because Andy walked 14 players. It is still in the record books. Andy also joined the Philomathian Literary Society in high school and it was a club where they would cut out current event items and paste them in a book. Barney wanted to join too but he was black balled by Jack Egbert. Barney cried when he found out. Barney was part of the tinfoil drive in high school and he was also on the volleyball court maintainance crew as well as being in the Spanish Club. High School also brought romance to both Andy and Barney. Andy and Sharon Duspaine were so much in love that they were voted Couple of the Year both their junior and senior years at Mayberry Union High. They even talked about getting married but on graduation night they had a big fight because Andy wanted to stay in Mayberry and become a small fish in a small pond while Sharon wanted to go to the city and be a big fish in a big pond. Romania Wiley supposedly had a crush on Barney and once wrote in his Cutlass Yearbook and called him Tweeky. So friends, these are some of the things we know about Barney and Andy while they were growing up in our wonderful Mayberry -- Ken Anderson The Mayberry Guru 2906 May Street Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 www.mayberryreflections.com _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
