Ken raised some interesting questions about Andy's relatives, and why there seem to be so few of them in Mayberry. We do know from three early episodes that Barney and Andy are cousins; if we assume they are first cousins, then we can conclude that Barney's father is the brother of Andy's mother. Their dads can't be brothers because then Andy and Barney would have the same last name; also Barney often refers to his "mother's side of the family" as if Andy doesn't know any of those folks, and lastly, in Aunt Bee's Invisible Beau we learn that Aunt Bee (who must be the sister of Andy's father, since her name is Taylor) is not really Barney's aunt. Barney just calls her Aunt Bee out of respect and affection, the same way Gomer, Goober, Thelma Lou, and just about everybody else in town younger than she does
However, there is no evidence in any episode to suggest that Andy has lived in Mayberry his entire life. We do know that he spent at least part of his childhood in Mayberry and that he attended Mayberry Union High School, but unless my memory is off (which is quite possible) we are never told where Andy was born, nor where he lived after he finished high school. He does mention "being over in France during the war" in two early episodes, so this PROBABLY means he served in the United States Army during World War II, but then again he could have been doing something else in France; perhaps he was a reporter or foreign exchange student or even a diplomat or something else. He may even have been talking about being in France during the Korean War, but that seems unlikely. In the first episode, Andy tells Opie that Aunt Bee raised him (Andy) from the time he was "the least little speck of a baby" which seems to indicate that Andy's mother died in childbirth, or very soon after. Andy does mention his father in The Bank Job and Keeper of the Flame, so we know he wasn't an orphan. But since Opie never mentions any grandparents, I would guess that Andy's father passed away before Opie was born. Paul Mulik _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
