![]() One day he was bound to get cut by something rusty out on the farm, or perhaps bitten by an animal. Rafe smiled and nodded, then asked “What’s that mean?” Andy then suggested, in simpler language, that Rafe was setting himself up as a sacrificial martyr. He finally understood, he said, that Rafe had chosen to reject the shot in a bid for immortality. Was there any hope? Andy finally sat down with Rafe and agreed that Rafe was right. Not surprisingly, Barney Fife’s high-pitched scolding didn’t help, either. Visiting the farm and talking to Rafe about medical advances didn’t work. I don’t see no sense in clutterin’ up things in between … I ain’t never been jabbed and I ain’t fixin’ to be,” Rafe said. ![]() Rafe claimed that he didn’t need any such thing: “I ain’t never been to a doctor in my life. It turns out that Episode 24 of Season 2 was called “ The County Nurse,” and it dealt with Andy doing his best to convince farmer Rafe Hollister to get a tetanus vaccination. Pequeño wondered whether Andy could convince many of the vaccine holdouts in her hometown, where just 43% of Surry County residents are fully vaccinated, 14% have tested positive for COVID-19, and 192 have died. I picked it up from News & Observer columnist Sara Pequeño, who happens to be a native of Mount Airy. I have friends who can recall an episode from the show dealing with just about any situation, and I was slow in realizing that Andy’s homespun wisdom might even address the problem of persuading people to bare their arms for the COVID-19 vaccine. Griffith later said that he regretted not having more Black actors on the show, and some have observed that was one problem even Andy could not have begun to solve in a half-hour program. Like most TV programs from the 1960s, the show was virtually devoid of Black characters despite being produced during the heyday of the civil rights movement. The program was set in a simpler time in a small North Carolina town called Mayberry, an overt reflection of Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Appalachians. Few television shows have retained their popularity as long as “The Andy Griffith Show,” which ran for 249 episodes between 19, and continues to play in reruns more than 60 years later.
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