We saw the Andy Griffith Mural on Moore Avenue in downtown Mount Airy when we visited earlier this week. It is created with spray paint! The mural displays four aspects of Andy’s life and career against the backdrop of Pilot Mountain. The mural, done entirely with spray paint by Greensboro artist Jeks, was completed in May 2022, in time for what would have been Andy’s 96th birthday. Our tour guide told us about watching the artist working with spray cans of paint to do it. That is pretty amazing for spray cans!
We are continuing to paint local landmarks….this time it’s the Old Feed Mill….known as the Main Street Mill today. Join us on August 23rd at 2 pm and paint along with us. 
Some family stories just stick with you no matter how young you were when they happened. One such story in my family involves camping…which we did a lot of while I was growing up. The story I refer to involves when we switched from tent camping to a trailer. I don’t recall the year but I was young…maybe 6 or so so it had to be the late 1960’s and my mom, brother, sister, an aunt and uncle went to Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach FL and set up our campsites. It was a Friday and my dad had to work and was coming down to meet us after work. Just before he was to arrive a terrible storm blew in….seems like it may have been a small hurricane or at least that is how the story goes….and there was my mom holding on to my young sister as well as a tent pole while Brother held a pole and so did I. We were practically flapping in the wind! It passed quickly but not before the tent was gone….except for the three poles we were holding. About that time my dad rolls in on his motorcycle (which he had rode through the storm) and my mother greets him by putting us kids in the station wagon and driving all the way home. I don’t ever remember seeing her that mad ever again. That is the week we bought a camper and upgraded our camping experience. It seems like something was said like “if you want to camp it is not going to happen in a tent ever again!” The view you see in this photos is the very campsite where the incident occurred. I was small but I remember it well. It’s been fun coming back to the park to see what has changed and what is exactly the same!
When we say we want to reopen our businesses to get the economy moving again please don’t respond that we don’t need to get the Stock Market going to make the rich richer. It’s not about the Stock Market. I don’t have any money in the Stock Market. I have money in a small business on Main Street in a small town in Virginia. I have money in my business. I have money in my house…that I would like to be able to keep. Businesses like mine are labeled as “non-essential” but what could be more essential than trying to make a living and feed our families and pay our bills. If we don’t reopen soon I will lose that business I have worked so hard to build. It appears that the SBA Small Business Loans and CAREs act moneys are not going to make it down to a little business like mine. It’s sad that those of us who are self-employed or have one or two employees and need the help the most are the ones who are going to suffer in this. So when we reach out and say please, let us open as soon as possible….find a safe way to do it, don’t respond that by asking to reopen the economy we want to make the rich richer. We just want to make a living!
The Studio 