Won't You Be My neighbor?

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I am a huge fan of Fred Rogers and i still will sometimes watch old episodes of the Neighborhood with my daughter because i want her to know the good neighbor I had growing up. I have read much about him and i am convinced he was that rarity in the world of celebrities: the real deal.
 
He is one of the few people that can reduce all manner of hardened, cynical men of my age group to tears with just a few words. It is stunning how many people had such an intimate experience with this man when they were children, just through the tv.
 
I actually had a crush on Mr. Rogers when I was about 11. I didn’t get to see his show till then because it was on UHF and my parents insisted on using this ancient VHF-only black and white TV that I think they had before they were married, and it was the only TV in our house. Finally it died so we got a used UHF TV and I discovered Mr. Rogers. He was just so friendly and kind on the TV and really seemed to want to get to know you. I didn’t know anything about him personally other than his persona on the TV. It was my husband, a Presbyterian from the Pittsburgh area where Mr. Rogers used to be a Presbyterian minister and then a local TV show host before he went national, who told me some years later that Fred Rogers was the same type of person off the TV as he was on TV. And that Mr. Rogers’ mother made all his famous sweaters.
 
There are a lot of people from the Pittsburgh area, and all over the place, that have amazing personal stories of meeting Mr. Rogers in person, or how special it was when he personally answered their letters to him when they were kids. Or, if they were sick, would call them personally. Or even visit them or invite them to come to WQED in Pittsburgh to the set of the show. Whenever he went somewhere, he would inevitably be recognized, but he drove his handlers crazy because he would stop and have intimate conversations with random people who recognized him.

And people who met him once or twice found themselves in his correspondence, he would call or send cards or letters. Or if they were going through a rough patch, they would be in his prayers. I heard he regularly got up at around 5 am and had a lengthy prayer session, praying for people all over by name.

One thing about him, is he would bring a camera around with him. When people met him, he sometimes would take pictures with them, as if they were the celebrity, or would call his wife and tell her about the new friend he had met—sometimes passing the phone to them to say hi.
 
Me Rogers had a simple, homespun wisdom that was very appealing.
I always loved his song lyric “the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes”.
Without being shaming or bossy, he taught that right and wrong were real and under our control, but that even if we made mistakes, we could do better the next time.

But at the same time, it makes me uneasy when special-interest groups try to appropriate him as “one of their own”.
Mr Rogers cred, if you will.
 
On the internet, I’ve seen LGBT activists trying to make the case that he was an activist for their side.
I’m not sure that was the case. At least in his TV show, issues of marriage were considered grown-up decisions.
From what I can gather, his denomination was allowing same-sexual unions, but I don’t think he ever made a public statement about his own thoughts on the matter.
 
Pure spirits are hard to come by. That he’s still got such a strong hold on people 15 years after his death says a lot.
 
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Daniel Tigers Neighborhood is kind of annoying.
 
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I had to look that up.

I think I’ll stick with the original Daniel Tiger as he appeared on the show.

These reboots of old shows are in general annoying as all heck.

Get an original thought, show creators
 
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As a little kid, I remember thinking Lady Elaine was supposed to be the wicked witch in the story.
But as I got older I found her weirdly relatable–she was impulsive like me, and fully capable do doing some really stupid things.
Lady Aberlin and Queen Sarah Saturday were just too perfect. They were who I aspired to be, but Lady Elaine was closer to who I actually was.

Henrietta Pussycat was just too boring and she meowed too much.
 
Rogers was from Latrobe, maybe 30 miles east of Pittsburgh and was a high school classmate of the late Arnold Palmer, who was also reputedly very genuine as well.
 
Yes. A local story. Mr. Rogers left his car out in his driveway one night and it was stolen. This made the local news. Some nasty person stole Mr. Rogers’ car! A day or two later, the car was back in his driveway, with a note on it–Sorry, I didn’t know it was YOUR car.
 
My PBS kids’ show viewing era was the mid-to-late seventies, but it was all about Sesame Street and Electric Company. Still I knew what a pure person Fred Rogers was, and when I saw the trailer for this movie I teared up. Once I get the chance I’m absolutely going see the film.

The one part in the trailer that got me in the gut was when they showed the reaction in some places to black people using public pools, and with people violently dumping bleach in them in response. It then showed Mr. Rogers and the postman character putting their feet in the same kiddie pool, and it was just so gentle and loving that it seemed to typify his nature.
 
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