6-17-2021 9:57pm

Merge Wright: Planking In Mayberry

Rick Amburgey Neighbor

Planking in Mayberry

OK, what’s planking? It’s basically a fad that started back in the 90’s. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition: Planking or the lying down game is an activity consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to plank. The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank. It’s no less, no more and has no sexual or other meaning whatsoever. So why plank? Well, you visit a place and want to have some fun or a crazy picture to send to your friends or post on FaceBook...you plank...that simple.

Have others in our community planked before? Yes, many, many have done so including an attorney on vacation in Florida and an elderly lady at an amusement park here in Ohio. Sure it’s silly, goofy, crazy and then some but it’s fun. Lucy and I were returning from visiting our son and his family in the Raleigh, North Carolina area a few years back and decided to stop in Mayberry (Mt. Airy), and tour the town. After getting a picture of me, Sheriff Andy and Opie in front of the Andy Griffith Community Theater I looked over at a picnic table where people sit to sip on refreshments during intermission and said to Lucy, “I think I’ll plank on that table over there...get a picture, I feel like planking in Mayberry”. Later we stopped by Floyd’s Barber Shop (No, I didn’t get a Floyd’s haircut.) went in the Mayberry 5 & Dime, and a couple of stops later picked up a couple of t-shirts at another store while strolling down main street.

I did notice that we were probably the youngest people in town. Tour busses had dropped a seniors tour off where you had to be 85 and prove it. I was advised online by a planking expert that my posture indicated I was actually snaking (didn’t know such a thing existed) because I had my head up. I didn’t realize you get points for perfect form and there are other categories. Think I’ll just stick to plain old planking when the urge hits and not worry about grabbing any awards.

While in the Raleigh area I asked son Jonathan if there was anything cool, uncanny, funny, crazy related to the area he lived in. I posed this question in particular when we were in a shopping center in Cary, a very beautiful city comparable to Springboro: “I feel like we’re in New York City right now...whassup with all the New York people, is this where they vacation?” “No, IBM moved thousands from it’s New York City location to Cary back in the 90’s, he replied. “So now Cary stands for: “Containment Area for Relocated Yankees”. That had me in hysterics with a vision of thousands of Yankee baseball fans being contained in a fenced in area. He then added they had a lot of people that moved from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, etc., to Florida and found it to be to hot for their liking and decided to move half way back landing in the Raleigh area. They call those people “Half Backs”.

Anybody interested in planking locally this summer send me an email and we’ll get a group together.

Merge Wright’s email address is: mergewright@yahoo.com