Forever Ago Fangirl Friday! Lisa-Lisa Meets Gomer Pyle Himself, Jim Nabors! Goodness!

It makes me happy to know that “Gomer Pyle” is still being rerun on TV. It would have been doomed to obscurity had it not been a spin off of the all-time classic “The Andy Griffith Show”, but trust me when I say that the star, Jim Nabors was the object of fandom in the ‘60s and ‘70s. As a kid watching the show, I could never reconcile the thick southern accent Gomer with the deep, operatic singing voice the actor had when appearing on the many variety shows he turned up on as a guest, but I was enough of a fan to name a toy duck I had as a wee child “Miss Bunny” after Private Pyle’s long-time girl-friend on the show.

Flash forward a couple decades. Surprise, surprise, surprise! I was thrilled to hear Jim Neighbors was going to be a guest at the TV Land booth I was working with at a syndication convention in the late ’90s. I got to spend most of the day with him. He was amongst the nicest celebrities I have ever met and we had a long conversation about his career that made me love and respect him more than I had before that day. Before departing to return to Maui macadamia nut farm, he signed a photo to me and posed for a picture. I also had him sign a rare Gomer Pyle trading card of him with Sgt. Carter(aka Frank Sutton). It was a day from the forever ago that I’ll never forget.