Broadcast on February 5, 1968 the message of the episode, Goober Goes to an Auto Show, has always stayed with me:
Goober goes to Raleigh with Andy, Opie and Aunt Bee to visit the auto show. While there, he decides to get in touch with an old classmate, Roy Swanson. They studied auto mechanics together and got along really well. Roy tells Goober that he is now the Vice President for Amalgamated Motors and feeling somewhat sorry for himself, Goober makes up a tale saying he owns a string of gas stations. His fibbing is soon revealed and he feels bad that he has been so less successful than his old friend. Somewhat down in the mouth, he perks up when Andy stops for gas on the way home. He also shows why he is far more successful than his old friend Roy.
In this Vale of Tears, events and fortune, good and bad, heavily influence how successful we are in earthly terms. How we behave, however, is always under our control.
This was also the general message of the Nic Cage movie “The Family Man” where a rich business guy gets to experience having a family for a week and learns that maybe there’s some riches he missed out on. Really solid film.