Posted on 11/16/2010 11:21:58 AM PST by Kimmers
Mister Rogers summered in a modest, gray, shake-shingled house on the edge of Nantucket. My mother rented a tiny cottage next door. So Mister Rogers really was my neighbor.
I first met Mister Rogers on Sept. 4, 2001 -- my thirtieth birthday.
I was a bit lost at the time. My parent's divorce and chronic relocation left me a serial monogamist (but commitment phobe) hooked on rock ’n’ roll fantasy. Everything would be fine, I reasoned, if I could get famous for expressing my dysfunction; it seemed to work for everyone in Rolling Stone magazine and on MTV.
So I'd moved to NYC some five years prior to either write for or be on the cover of RS. It ended up the latter (sort of), though I quickly parlayed my online Weezer reviews and Jewel interviews into a producer gig at MTV News while hocking CDs at performances in rock venues from Boston to Raleigh-Durham.
I was ambivalent about all of it, seeking something meaningful amid a fast-paced, short-attention-span mediaverse.
Which is roughly when Mister Rogers stepped toward the back porch and asked, "Is the birthday boy here?"
The next day, Mister Rogers invited us over for lemonade. I played him a song. And then he showed me around his so-called Crooked House, a sparse, almost-ascetic cottage. Mister Rogers was so real, so authentic, and so disarming, that I felt right at home. We sat a while in his study, out back behind the garage. There was a desk, a computer and a small piano, all with a view over the pale green grassy dunes to Madaket Bay beyond. He asked me something no one ever asks. “Tell me about your father,” he said. “Your mother doesn’t speak about him.” And so I told him about my parents’ divorce, and how ugly it was, and almost cried right there on the spot; I felt safe, and comfortable.
He said, simply, “That must have been very difficult for you, Benjamin.”
Then he rolled his chair over to the piano and began playing: first, the theme from his show: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” he sang with a little more swing than on television, smiling. And then he sang “Happy Birthday” to me. Even now, years later, it still seems like a dream.
Later, we stood on the back porch in the Indian summer sun staring out at the water. He asked me about my job at MTV. He said he was concerned about modern pop culture. “I feel so strongly," he said, "That deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex."
My apologies, I did not paste the entire article.....It is worth the read
I was at Reagan International before it was named that. Mr. Rogers was at the luggage carousel. He was such a nice man to those strangers around him. No wonder the children loved him.
Fred used to say that the space between the TV screen and viewer was “Hallowed ground.”
As you might imagine, Mr. Rogers was a superb homilist.
He was one of the very, very few people I’ve ever known who thought everyone he met was “Special”.
I think the world was diminished by his death.
He was also a reverend. I believe we lost him shortly after 9/11. Just when I thought things were scary enough Mr. Rogers left us.
My sis’ dogs love to take naps while watching recorded eps of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. She puts him on and even the doggies feel safe.
Mister Rodgers was 100% what he appeared to be.
He was a man of deep faith who truly loved and, more importantly, wanted to protect children. He never spoke “down” to them (despite his sing-song delivery) — he truly respected them, and everyone, as unique children of God with infinite dignity.
Most people (me especially) don’t deserve to even carry his sneakers, much less hold his sweater for him.
RIP Fred Rodgers — you truly had a positive effect on the world. You are missed.
I’m in my 2nd half century on this Earth, and I still (and will always) love Fred Rogers. He was a good and honorable man.
When the subject of Mr. Rogers comes up I always make it a point to let people know that he has the deepest respect of this old man.
Mr. Rogers always seemed like such a kind man, but one never knows what is on air personna, and what is real. So I didn’t give it much thought.
But one night I was watching Candid Camera. They had a prank set up where they were showing tv or film critics in town for a meeting being taken to their room and then the bellhop apologizing because there was no tv in the room. Of course, all of these folks raised cain and made a scene because there was no tv.
Unbeknownest to Funt, checking in the hotel that day was Mr. Rogers, so they decided to try the same prank on him. But when Mr. Rogers was told there was no TV, he immediately went about trying to make the bellhop feel at ease for having to deliver such a message. He said very kind, “Oh that’s okay, I’m not much of a tv watcher, just some news now and then....and I wasn’t really planning on watching TV tonight.” He was sooooo gracious and soft spoken through the whole thing.
Well that sealed it for me, I realized that Mr. Rogers’s personna on TV was exactly who he was in real life.
One of my favorite routines! Someone made a youtube of the transcript:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJTb130GR0E
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