It really wasn’t Barney Fife walking around the fairgrounds. But golly gee, Scott Epperson is a dead ringer for the bumbling deputy from Mayberry.
Every word out of his mouth and body movement had me chucking. I took a photo of him with Mary Alice Lair, and then warned him Thelma Lou would be jealous.
“Now don’t go talking about me and Thelma Lou,” he warned. “What we got going is between me and Thelma Lou.”
He told me he was there to help the Kansas Highway Patrol keep the riff raft out of the fair.
“Did you know there was a female patrol officer?” he said, puffing his chest out like Barney does. “She wanted me. I could tell just the way she looked at me.”
Epperson told me that people really do believe he is Barney. He had a little 8-year-old called him, wanting to talk to Opie. He told him that Opie was riding his bike and he would be sure to tell Opie hey from him.
Back in character, Barney wanted me to feel his chest of steel. And it took several tries to really feel anything.
But, he told me if need be he could turn his body into a human weapon.
“How would you do that?” I asked.
“Well now you are getting personal,” he said.
Mary Alice Lair, a former fair board member, poses with Barney Fife, making Thelma Lou jealous.
Watch out for Barney of Mayberry. He’s looking for riff-raft
Hutch&stuff 