Every now and then, I meet people who are new to Brookfield, and sometimes they come right out and say to me, “You know, this is a great little town. It’s like Mayberry.”
And I smile back and nod at them, being polite, but privately thinking, “Mayberry? Us? Who’s our police chief, Andy Taylor?”
Then I wonder what our real police chief, Steven Stelter, would say about us being like Mayberry. Does he have a Barney Fife working under him? And do we have a Floyd, the barber? Don’t even get me started on Goober!
Anyway, it makes me think. Now, Mayberry is a quiet little town with tree-lined streets. Sure, we’ve got those, all right. We’re a Tree City. Life goes by so slow in Mayberry that sometimes you’d think the local grocery store still sells penny candy. I wonder what an uproar would occur, should, say, a Wal-Mart suddenly decide to open up next to the courthouse?
In Mayberry, there hardly seems to be any crime at all, unless you count the odd shoplifter or liquor still operator. Sure, Sheriff Taylor issues a few traffic tickets if his warnings are ignored, but generally it’s small stuff to deal with.
Here in Brookfield we do have crime, some of it extra-serious, but sometimes not so. The police handle it all very well, doing their job without any fuss. Say, maybe we should borrow Barney to stand permanent guard at the Congress Park Subway Tunnel, to scare off the usual brand of vandals who always tag the white walls.
But, otherwise, is our Brookfield generally so peaceful and calm that it could be called a true Mayberry? Well, I have experienced some, what I call, “Mayberry moments” here this summer.
There have been late mornings and early afternoons when I’ve walked from the corner of Prairie and Brookfield avenues, straight across the street, and then right across Grand Blvd.–busy Grand Blvd.–without encountering any traffic. None, from any direction. It’s happened even during the rush hours. There never seems to be much traffic in Mayberry, either.
OK, so Brookfield has its slow times. So are we “just like Mayberry,” but only at odd intervals? You, too, may someday be a witness to these rare moments. But we also have our traffic jams around Eight Corners. When trains go across the Maple Avenue and Prairie Avenue crossings, they can back up a heck of a lot of traffic. Does Mayberry have train tracks cutting their town in half? Don’t think so.
What the small town of Mayberry does have are residents who will stop and talk, and give directions. Just being neighborly. Just like the good people of Brookfield. Hmm.
Ever been in a small town? I mean, not just shot through it in your car, but taken the time to stop in, and look around? I have traveled to the northwestern Illinois region, and have been in towns such as Lanark, Shannon and Lena. Wonderful small towns of under 2,000 in population. Farming communities. I love them. People there are so kind and friendly and less hurried.
You can walk, wearing overalls, into diners and cafés. Well, as long as your overalls are clean. These towns have the Internet and satellite dishes and computers just like us here in the big city of Brookfield.
I have been on a rural road where cars have to slow down in case chickens come crossing over it. And the air here smells new and fresh, unless you’re passing manured fields. The sky at night is a stargazer’s dream, with the pitch black sky studded with a million stars. Sometimes you see a shooting star, and get to make a wish on it. I think all small towns have a touch of Mayberry in them.
Can we see starry skies here in Brookfield? Well, if the night sky is clear, we can. We even have a creek, Salt Creek, where a few people fish off the bridges, sometimes. Say, maybe we do have a little Mayberry in us!
So if people ever say to you that Brookfield is like Mayberry, just do like I do, nod, and agree politely. It seems to be a little true. And, after all, it could be worse. What if people started saying we were like Hooterville?
