Andy Griffith, Character Litmus?
This past weekend was one of my long weekends, as we get every other Friday off. I slept late on Friday and later when I was up I sat in my recliner to eat and turned on the TV.
Flipping around to see if anything good was on, I noticed The Andy Griffith Show was on, I can't remember which channel. I stopped long enough to see if it was one of my favorite episodes, and finding that it wasn't, I moved on. I ended up watching something I had recorded on our DVR.
But it reminded me of back when I lived in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Powder Springs actually.
I worked at Delta Airlines for 6+ years, the last 3 of which were at Hartsfield in Atlanta. I was a ramp rat, unloading and loading our planes. Transferring luggage to other flights and so forth. In an eight hour shift we typically worked five flights. I might be assigned with a few other guys to work gate A33 for the day, for example. Set up equipment. Flight comes in. We unload. If it was going to be a while before it left, we might take a short break before reloading the aircraft. Then reload and when the plane pushes back from the gate, set up the gate area again and go back to the break room.
We had a fair amount of break time most days, but we also worked like dogs when the plane was at our gate. But break time meant we watched lots of TV. And being in Georgia, and working with mostly people from the south, whenever The Andy Griffith Show was on any channel, we watched it.
I mean, who doesn't love Andy Griffith, right?
Wrong.
Whenever we had a new employee in our area, generally a transfer from another part of the country, the guys I worked with would watch the new guy/girl carefully whenever Andy Griffith came on. And one girl I remember, had just transferred from Seattle, WA to Atlanta. Everyone came in on break at approximately the same time and someone turned on Andy. The new girl jumped up in a frustrated huff and walked out of the TV room muttering about how she hated "this stupid show".
Nobody said a word about her, but most of the guys in there gave each other a squinty-eyed, knowing look that in effect said, "Doesn't like Andy Griffith, huh? Well, she can't be trusted and we're gonna have to watch out for her." This happened any number of times in my work at ATL, and it always made me laugh.
I mean, I like to watch people, and this was a truly unique thing I witnessed, so I got a kick out of the guys being this way. And they were serious too.
I worked with the girl, and she was a good worker, but few people there would have truly trusted her in any way that mattered.
I had just never thought of Andy Griffith being a point on which people judged another's character. Mainly because until this period of my life, I had no idea there was anyone in the world who could hate The Andy Griffith Show.
Self Portrait and Review of King Kong, The Movie
Netflix sent us King Kong and we received and watched it this past Friday.
I guess I would say that it was worth watching, but parts of it were just plain silly. I mean, it's not a good sign when the family and I are cracking jokes about the movie and making up clever lines for the characters WHILE THE MOVIE WAS IN PROGRESS.
Peter Jackson did a perfect job with the Lord Of The Rings movies. I can only guess that he intentionally put in silly stuff to make us laugh like we would as if we were watching a movie with decades old special effects.
At least I HOPE the silliness was intentional. But I like funny. This wasn't funny. It was silly. But overall, worth one watch at least.
But I sure am glad I didn't pay to see it at the Thee-ater.
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