Searching for Beefcake in Mayberry

Mount Airy, North Carolina, in the northwest part of the state near the Virginia border, is famous as the inspiration for idyllic small-town Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68) and Mayberry RFD (1968-71). Those shows have been off the air for 40 years, but people have long memories, and every year thousands of tourists descend upon Mount Airy to relive a fantasy of what life used to be like, before all the hippies and liberals and gays took over.

By the way, there's an Andy Griffith/Ron Howard hookup story on Gay Celebrity Stories

They can go to the Andy Griffith Museum, a replica of Andy's courthouse, the Mayberry Market, and lots of businesses named after characters on the show:
1. Barney's Restaurant
2. Opie's Candy Store
3. Aunt Bee's Restaurant
4. Floyd's Barber Shop
5. Wally's Service Station.

There's an annual Mayberry Days Festival with 30,000 to 50,000 visitors, a parade of surviving cast members and impersonators, and a bevy of very bored-looking kids (photo from Gary W. Baird).

But what about people living in the present, who don't wax nostalgic over the homophobia, racism, and sexism of our grandparents' generation?

There are Thai, Vietnamese, and Mexican restaurants. The town celebrates Black History Month. There's a Surry Arts Council, but they seem to mostly put on country-western concerts, like "Shadowgrass," "an up-and-coming youth bluegrass band out of southwestern Virginia."

What about beefcake?