Andy Griffith Show – Jim Stafford's BlogOKC

Best of BlogOKC in 2025

Editor’s note: As the curtain closes on 2025, I’ve gone through everything written on BlogOKC for the past year for my annual ‘best of’ column in which I select what I consider to be the best 10 of the year. In looking at the posts, I see a trend in what appeals to me for subject matter: nostalgia. Maybe I look back too often for topics that interest me, but that’s a lot of what I write about. Enjoy the top 10:

Frank Day’s labor of love honors the dying art of quilting

Frank Day works on a hand-stitched quilt, accompanied by one of his favorite pets.

A personal favorite right at the top. I discovered that my long-time friend Frank Day from Roland, OK, has become a prolific quilter. Today Frank is 75 years old and retired after more than two decades as fleet sales manager for Fort Smith’s Randall Ford. I think he can best be described in 2025 as a one-man quilting bee. That’s right. Frank Day began hand-stitching beautiful quilts over two decades ago, and continues his quilting avocation today. Read it here.

Best of the best: Top 10 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show

Andy Griffith and Don Knotts from an episode of The Andy Griffith Show

This post is on its way to becoming one of BlogOKC’s most read posts of all time. Here’s the first few sentences: “If I look at my friend Ed and say ‘how do you do Mrs. Wiley?’ he will know exactly what I am saying. In fact, he might reply with something like ‘I would recognize that accent anywhere. It’s definitely Back Bay Boston.’ Ed and I are true geezers, which means each of us has crossed over the retirement bridge and can indulge in pasttimes as we choose. And one of those is watching the Andy Griffith Show. Read it here.

Breaking News: Grape Nehi lives in 2025!

I discovered this bottle of grape Nehi during a recent visit to an OKC Cracker Barrel store.

So that brings me to August 2025. I discovered Cracker Barrel sells grape Nehi among the many nostalgic candy and soda brands it offers. When we arrived at the store along I-35 in far north OKC, it was filled with customers, and we had about a 35-minute wait for a table. As I sauntered through the store during our wait, I stumbled upon a soda display that had a grape Nehi right in the middle. Grape Nehi lives! Read it here.

Best of Barney: Quoting the greatest sitcom character in television history

Barney consoles Andy with a heart-to-heart talk

My friend Ed Godfrey shared what he considers to be the best 10 Barney Fife lines from the old Andy Griffith show. Here’s how he started the post. “The best sitcom character in the history of television is Barney Fife, played by the great Don Knotts. I’m sorry, if you don’t agree, you’re wrong.” Read it here.

Theodora’s Elegante Wigs thrives amid generational ch-ch-changes

Linda (Faubus) Lewis is surrounded by wig-covered mannequin heads at her Theodora’s Elegante Wigs shop.

Another personal favorite because it reaches way back to my high school days. “When I saw the ‘Theodora’s Wigs” sign as I was driving past in Fort Smith, Ark., this week, it took me back more than 55 years into an earlier life. So, I veered off Towson Ave., into the Phoenix retail center lot and parked outside the wig shop. Read it here

Meet the International Man of Mystery from Stigler, OK

Hershel Prentice at recent OKC Thunder game

If you ask Stigler, OK, native Hershel Prentice where in the world he’s been lately, he’ll gladly tell you. Dubai? Check. Oman? Check? Poland? Check. Austria? Check. Germany? Check, Newfoundland? Check? Labrador? Check. Check. Check. Whew! And that’s just this year. Read it here.

Gov. Stitt, let’s value lives over dollars

I don’t often take a political position in this blog, but when Gov. Stitt vetoed legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer, I had to speak up. I called my legislators urging them to help overturn Gov. Stitt’s veto of legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer. My wife, Paula, a breast cancer survivor, called our legislators, as well. Then I published this post. Read it here.

Customer service, without the ‘service’

More BlogOKC advocacy from a January post: Call me an entitled American, if you like, but there seems to be a wide gulf these days between the words “customer” and “service” in our society. I’m talking about when you call the “customer service” line of a major corporation and have to work through 15 AI bots that can’t help with any of your issues before a human finally comes on the line. Today, I’m ranting about a recent experience with the customer service department at American Airlines. (American fixed the problem after this post was published) Read it here.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: I knew it all until I realized I didn’t

When I graduated high school in 1971 — in the bottom half of my class academically — I plunged into my future thinking I pretty much knew everything I needed to know and could handle anything coming my way. However, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Read it here.

London Homesick Blues puts me back in that place
Some college nostalgia: Back to 2025. I’m not sure how or why, but I began listening to “London Homesick Blues” on replay over the course of the past couple of months. A wave of nostalgia washes over me when I hear it, and it really does take me back to that place — the ACU campus and the people with whom I shared classes and The Optimist newsroom. Read it here.

BONUS CONTENT

Why I’m living the Hallmark lifestyle
Read it here.

Drivers beware: Speed traps live on
Read it here.

Apple draws the line on altered reality in photos
Read it here.

Aging Well: 3 Old Geezers Podcast returns
Read it here.

Drivers beware, speed traps live on

What comes to mind when you see the words ‘speed trap?’ Barney Fife, perhaps?

Yeah, you know what they are. A cop car parked behind a sign or tree just off the highway, typically at the edge of a small town in an area where speed limit suddenly drops from say, 65 mph to 45.

Gotcha!

Way back in the olden days when I was in college driving from Abilene, Texas, back home to Fort Smith, Ark., I learned to be extra cautious when I drove through Stringtown, OK.

Stringtown was notorious for handing out speeding tickets to drivers passing through town on U.S. 69 and unaware that speed limit changed abruptly. It already had a reputation as a speed trap, and my dad warned me about it before I made my first trip.

By 2014, most everyone who didn’t hail from Stringtown had had enough. It was revealed that 76 percent of the town’s revenue — $483,000 in 2013 — was generated by traffic tickets, far more than the 50 percent cap set by the state legislature.

So, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety announced that Stringtown police officers no longer could enforce traffic laws on state and federal highways.

Turns out that Stringtown was a repeat offender. It also drew state sanctions in the 1980s, three decades before the latest action. Read about it in this 2014 article from The Oklahoman.

But speed traps live on today in other communities across the state.

I drove through one in Muldrow, OK, just this past weekend. I saw a Muldrow police SUV hidden behind some barrels in the median of I-40 shortly before 7 am on Sunday.

Yes, Muldrow city officers were patrolling the Interstate! Maybe a quarter mile of I-40 goes through Muldrow city limits, which apparently gives their officers the right to patrol that stretch and hand out traffic tickets to protect their citizens.

I wasn’t even aware that stretch of I-40 was within the city limits of the city of Muldrow because it looks like a fairly rural area. Fortunately, I did not get pulled over — this time.

But the fact that he was out there monitoring traffic before sunup along the short stretch of Interstate that passed through the city limits really irked me.

So, I called the Muldrow Police Department on Monday to ask if they patrol the Interstate and why.

“Yes, because it is part of our city limits,” I was told.

OK, my next question was “does the city have an agreement with the state that allows it to patrol the Interstate in place of Highway Patrol?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “You will have to ask someone else that question.”

I’ve read that the state has to authorize communities to patrol state and federal highways that pass through their city limits, although I wasn’t sure that’s accurate. So I looked it up.

Here’s what I found in an online search of Oklahoma law:

“The Commissioner may designate any portion of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and those portions of the federal-aid primary highways and the state highway system which are located within the boundaries of and on the outskirts of a municipality for special traffic-related enforcement by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Division and issue a written notice to any other law enforcement agency affected thereby. Upon receipt of such notice, the affected law enforcement agency shall not regulate traffic nor enforce traffic-related statutes or ordinances upon such designated portion of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways or such designated portions of the federal-aid primary highways and the state highway system without prior coordination and written approval of the Commissioner.”

I’ll translate: The state highway commissioner can forbid municipalities from enforcing traffic laws on state and federal highways.

Muldrow’s next door neighbors in Roland also patrol their stretch of I-40, according to my friend and lifelong Roland resident Frank Day. In fact, I found this story about Roland’s well deserved speed trap reputation from a 1999 edition of The Oklahoman.

Reddit users provided many more known speed traps. “Asher, Big Cabin, Savanah, Calera… really any small town with a highway through it,” offered a user who goes by FakeMikeMorgan.

Anyway, small town speed traps always remind me of Deputy Barney Fife and his “Checkpoint Chickie” speed trap in Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show back in the day. Watch a clip below.

I’m asking readers to submit their least favorite speed traps from around Oklahoma — and beyond. I’ll add them to this post and we can compile a list to help our fellow travelers in the future.

Consider it a service, like flashing your lights at ongoing vehicles after you pass a cop-in-waiting.

You’re welcome.

Here a speed trap contribution from Inona Harness via her son, Casey. Waukomis, OK, which is due south of Enid. Thank you, Inona!

The best of the best: Top 10 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show

If I look at my friend Ed and say “how do you do Mrs. Wiley?” he will know exactly what I am saying. In fact, he might reply with something like “I would recognize that accent anywhere. It’s definitely Back Bay Boston.”

Ed and I are true geezers, which means each of us has crossed over the retirement bridge and can indulge in pasttimes as we choose.

And one of those is watching the Andy Griffith Show, which means we rewatch episodes from 60-plus years ago that are so familiar that we can easily quote favorite lines. In fact, we toss lines back and forth from episodes that we haven’t actually seen in years.

If all you know of great comedy shows in history are The Office or Seinfeld, let me tell you about the Andy Griffith Show. It debuted in 1960 and carved a huge niche in popular culture across its eight seasons on CBS. The first five seasons were broadcast in black and white and include all my favorite episodes.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the show. Andy Taylor was a widowed father of a young boy, as well as the sheriff of Mayberry, a small town in rural North Carolina. He was surrounded by a community of zany, eccentric characters, not the least of which was Deputy Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts.

Barney created a lot of havoc and most of the memorable moments from the Andy Griffith Show. If you know, you know.

After Ed and I swapped some favorite lines a few weeks ago, I began to wonder what did I consider my favorite episodes of the show. So, I sat down, drew up this list and found clips from each on Youtube.

Told you I was retired.

Anyway, I decided I wanted to share with you my favorite 10 episodes, or in some cases, specific scenes from the Andy Griffith Show. There are scores of other episodes that would qualify for this list, but these are my personal favs. I previously wrote about an episode of the show that isn’t included in this list. You might have a different take.

Click on the short clips below, and enjoy.

CITIZEN’S ARREST

I went back and forth with this, but Citizen’s Arrest ranks No. 1 in my book. Gomer, played so well by Jim Nabors, calls out Barney in downtown Mayberry for making an illegal U-turn in the cop car.

Key line:
“You hear that folks? There are two sets of laws; one for the police, and one for the ordinary citizens.”

CHECKPOINT CHICKIE

This episode might be considered 1A for me. Barney somehow gets ahold of a vintage WWII era motorcycle and turns into the cop we all hate to run into when we’re driving through small town America.

Key line: “I let you do 40 today, you’ll do 45 tomorrow; I let you do 45 tomorrow, you’ll do 50 the day after that; I let you do 50 the day after that you’ll do 55 the day after that …”

PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION

This is a special bonus clip because it’s actually just the conclusion of an episode in 1963, but one of the most memorable scenes from the entire run of the show. Deputy Fife ‘perfectly’ recalls the preamble to Andy.

Key line: “There are things in that book that I still remember to this day. Once you learn something it never leaves you. It’s amazing how that stuff stays with you.”

HOW DO YOU DO MRS. WILEY?

This is such a great episode. Andy tries to knock some rough edges off of mountain man Ernest T. Bass so he can mix with high society at a Mayberry social event. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong.

Key line: “I recognize that accent. Definitely Back Bay Boston.”

ESCAPED CONVICTS CAPTURE FLOYD AND BARNEY

A trio of female escaped convicts happen upon Floyd and Barney in the hills outside of town and take them hostage in a cabin. Then the fun begins, until Barney tangos one of the convicts into the waiting handcuffs of Sheriff Taylor.

Key line: “Let’s you and me dance. You kidding? No, I’m not. What made you change your mind? You’re beginning to get to me.”

NIP IT IN THE BUD

Andy deputizes a trio of townfolk to help with security at a big Mayberry event that evening. Barney then proceeds to bark orders at the men as if he’s a drill sergeant shaping up raw recruits.

Key line: “The minute it looks like there’s going to be trouble, we’ve got to nip it! Nip it in the bud!”

BARNEY AND THE CHOIR

Barney joins the community choir as it’s rehearsing for a big performance and sings way off key. His singing is so bad, the choir director wants to kick him out of the choir until Andy devises an incredibly funny solution.

Key line: “Oh, it’s no use, Andy. Can you tell a bird to just go chirp, chirp, chirp? No, Andy, I’m like a bird! I was born to sing!”

AUNT BEE’S KEROSENE PICKLES

Aunt Bee makes up a batch of pickles that taste like kerosene, but Andy and Barney pretend to like them because they won’t want to hurt her feelings. They sub her pickles out with store bought pickles on the sly. Then she decides to enter them in the County Fair pickle contest.

Key line: “I don’t know how I can face the future when I know there’s eight quarts of these pickles in it!”

MAN IN A HURRY

A big city businessman’s car breaks down in Mayberry, and he’s frustrated by the slow pace of the townspeople as he impatiently waits for the car to be repaired.

Key line: “For the love of Mike, do it! Do it! Go take a nap, go to Thelma Lou’s and watch TV.”

THE FUN GIRLS

I could not make this list without including the Fun Girls. They appeared in two episodes and brought chaos and levity to Mayberry — and blew up Andy and Barney’s relationships with their girlfriends, Helen and Thelma Lou.

Key lines: “Hello, Doll. Oh, Bernie!”

So, if you are a fan of the Andy Griffith Show like me and Ed, feel free to share your favorite episode or moment from the show in the comments to this post.

SPONSORED CONTENT: My friend Ed Godfrey gave this book, “Andy & Don,” to me as a birthday gift a couple years ago. I started reading and could not put it down. It’s that good, mainly because it reveals some behind the camera info on both Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, as well as other stars of Andy Griffith Show. For instance, Andy was quite the lady’s man, while Frances Bavier was not a fan of her role as Aunt Bee, nor of the show in general. Check it out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mb7RbA

Some salve for your soul

Recently, my 4-year old grandson complained of a big, red welp on the back of his calf. It was result of a mosquito bite, so I recommended to my wife that she put some salve on it to soothe the itch.

I discovered that I walked into a hornet’s nest with that suggestion.

“What, are you, 90 years old?” she asked. “No one says ‘salve’ any more. It’s ‘cream’ today.”

I wasn’t about to give in so easily.

“My grandmother put salve on every itch and wound I had as a kid,” I protested. “When I had a cold, she would even smear some Vicks VapoRub on my chest. That was the go-to salve in our family.”

The debate goes on today. Cream on one side. Salve on the other. I definitely remain on Team Salve.

So, I pointed her to the definitive statement on salve: The Andy Griffith Show and a wonderful episode about a miracle salve and how it entangled Barney Fife.

I offer it to you in this post for both educational and entertainment purposes.

Enjoy.