I visited the town of Mount Airy with my good friend John Barnes. Mount Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith and the real life inspiration of the town of Mayberry. We walked around snapping photographs of the downtown, which is a homage to everything Andy and Opie. John is a photographer and he is a proud North Carolinian. Snapping pictures really helped boost his mood. It's weird, but if a person was ever a fan of the Andy Griffith Show, a visit to Mayberry can make someone nostalgic. It's weird because the only memories I have of this place is through the television show. As a scientist who studies memory, nostalgia fascinates me. Part memory, part emotion, and part developmental psychology. I firmly believe that the experience of nostalgia can not be appreciated for at least ten years after an experience, and that the experience changes and grows with the passage of time. I think is this is partly the root of wisdom in older people, who have seen the world fundamentally change before their eyes, who can remember the experience of living in another time. Nostalgia helps connect the past to the present in a way that no digital technology ever could hope to do. It does so by connecting people of different generations through the experiences of memory and emotion.
Case in point. I picked up a DVD copy of the Andy Griffith classic movie 'No time for sergeants.' I had never seen it before, so when I watched it, I was pleasantly surprised how well a 60 year old movie in black and white could hold up. The film served as a blueprint for the series 'Gomer Pyle, USMC' that starred Jim Neighbors, an alumnus of the Andy Griffith Show. Moreover, I was very happy that watching that movie helped me connect with my dad. Now in his late 80's, he has good days and bad days. He remembered the movie quite well and even recalled the scene in which a set of toilet seats are rigged to 'salute' visiting officers.
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