Small town vibe

Kim Kovach

The other night I was changing channels to find something to watch on TV.

I found an old black and white episode of the Andy Griffith Show centered around Sheriff Andy Taylor, his young son, Opie, and their Aunt Bee. This homey old-time sitcom from my childhood focuses on the small town residents of Mayberry, N.C.

In this episode, Aunt Bee decides that she doesn’t want to stand in the way of Sheriff Andy possibly marrying his lady friend and moving away with Opie someday because he might feel guilty leaving Aunt Bee on her own. Aunt Bee casually mentions that she is keeping company with a very nice man. When questioned further, Aunt Bee fibs and says that her new beau is the butter and egg man who makes deliveries around town. (TV viewers know this isn’t true but Andy does not.)

Since Mayberry is a small town and everybody knows everybody else’s business, this tidbit of gossip gets around quickly. Between the telephone operator listening in on the “party line” connecting multiple homes with telephone service and the local women chit-chatting at the beauty salon, Aunt Bee’s secret gets around. Unfortunately, when her nephew Sheriff Andy hears that the butter and egg man is married and lives in another town, he has to confront the man to save Aunt Bee’s reputation.

Of course, as with most old-fashioned situation comedies, this misunderstanding is sorted out by the end of the episode and all is well in Mayberry. Small town life does seem quaint and safe and neighborly. It also seems a bit stifling for anyone who wants to dress differently or sport a new hair style or dream of a life in the big city.

I’ve always been a fan of Southern writers depicting that small town way of life through colorful characters and authentic down-home details. My favorite authors include Flannery O’Connor (The Complete Stories), Eudora Welty (The Collected Stories), Ron Rash (Burning Bright, Nothing Gold Can Stay), Lee Smith (Cake Walk, Me and My Baby View the Eclipse), William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying), and Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain). Included in my Southern Writers club is John Kennedy Toole (A Confederacy of Dunces) and Tennessee Williams’ play (The Lady of Larkspur Lotion).

In those small town stories set in North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia, people talked about the heat, their spouses, children, neighbors and co-workers. Women gossiped in each other’s kitchens over a glass of sweet tea or down at the beauty parlor or in the grocery aisles at the Piggly Wiggly. Men congregated at the barber shop, the post office or general store to shoot the breeze with phrases like, “If he had an idea it would die of loneliness” or “That boy’s as useless as a screen door on a submarine.”

The slow pace of life in those small towns meant that people had time to notice when someone had a visitor or bought a new car or had a sofa delivered. Most likely the same kids you started kindergarten with were also the same teens walking across the stage at high school graduation.

I moved from Manhattan to Northern Westchester in 1987. I appreciate the small town vibe whenever I walk into the Chase Bank, the post office and pharmacy in Cross River, or the Lewisboro Library, and people call out, “Hi Kim!” I’ll leave the gossip to the characters in novels and short stories!

Kim Kovach likes a balance of personal space and friendliness. Sign up for spring fiction writing classes through Kim’s website at kimkovachwrites.com