Posted on 05/31/2007 8:50:38 PM PDT by van_erwin
15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever
Back when I was in 7th grade I stood up in front of my English class and delivered a tongue-in-cheek, poorly researched presentation on why I thought Mister Rogers should be the next President. I ate up the first few minutes zipping up my cardigan, and putting on some sneakers, and then I proceeded to mock him roundly. It was a riotous success. Fourteen years later, I’m using this post to repent. The following are 15 things everyone should know about Fred Rogers:
1. Even Koko the Gorilla loved him
Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!
2. He Made Thieves Think Twice
According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
3. He Watched His Figure to the Pound!
In covering Rogers’ daily routine (waking up at 5; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”
4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR
Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut Public Television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington. Almost straight out of a Capra film, his 5-6 minute testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million. Rogers also spoke to Congress, and swayed senators into voting to allow VCR’s to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family.
5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever
Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. Despite being an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.” Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.
6. He Was Genuinely Curious about Others
Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.
7. He was Color-blind
Literally. He couldn’t see the color blue. Of course, he was also figuratively color-blind, as you probably guessed. As were his parents who took in a black foster child when Rogers was growing up.
8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing
Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” The result made Rogers smile wide.
A few other things:
9. He got into TV because he hated TV. The first time he turned one on, he saw people angrily throwing pies in each other’s faces. He immediately vowed to use the medium for better than that. Over the years he covered topics as varied as why kids shouldn’t be scared of a haircut, or the bathroom drain (because you won’t fit!), to divorce and war.
10. He was an Ivy League Dropout. Rogers moved from Dartmouth to Rollins College to pursue his studies in music.
11. He composed all the songs on the show, and over 200 tunes.
12. He was a perfectionist, and disliked ad libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.
13. Michael Keaton got his start on the show as an assistant– helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.
14. Several characters on the show are named for his family. Queen Sara is named after Rogers’ wife, and the postman Mr. McFeely is named for his maternal grandfather who always talked to him like an adult, and reminded young Fred that he made every day special just by being himself. Sound familiar? It was the same way Mister Rogers closed every show.
15. The sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.
Not really. Some are the adopted children of God.
Eph 1:5 MSG (5) Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)
I think there is enough Biblical proof that God loves His creation but doesn't love everyone with a blanket kind of love. I think it would be myopic to tell an unbeliever "God loves you and will send you to Hell". Those are two opposing ideas. Jam 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Had they all been so we wouldn’t have to worry about lions becoming extinct.
the homosexuals will have to live with their decisions and answer to God. Just like you or I will have to stand before him with no BS and answer for all the large and little acts of abominations we have committed..... if you think about the commandments and what we've done in our lives, we are all blasphemers and have very little room to go around pointing fingers at others for their "sins".
“Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again
I'm not sure about you, but I'm pretty much screwed...
Probably sounds that way, but considering that actually was his grandfather's name. Oh well!
Loving somebody and sending them to hell..... I thought that our actions sent us to hell and that he was leading us away from hell. I thought that we send ourselves to hell and that he gives us the opportunity to turn around and beg for his grace that he gave us for free.
I'm not very well versed in the Bible, all I can say is that if you're comfortable telling everybody here who is and isn't going to hell..or who God loves or doesn't love, then go for it.
I'm too worried about my sorry excuse for a Christian, me.
Another urban legend. Rogers never served in the military, and was only 17 years old when WW2 ended.
It may not be "intolerant," but it may be highly counterproductive if you go about it the wrong way. The reason why "fundamentalist Christian" has such a bad connotation for the general public is because all too often, self-professed "fundamentalist Christians" are so very unpleasant, and so very self-righteous.
One doesn't get much mileage out of "pointing out sin" when the first response of their audience is a visceral dislike.
Mr. Rogers knew that. His approach was simple in concept (and difficult in practice): accept everybody where they are, provide an example, and let God work on their hearts about the things they know are wrong.
Fred Rogers reminds one of the Christian friends of whom C. S. Lewis spoke: they led their own lives in such a manner that he saw his own misbehavior as shameful by comparison.
Good examples, and oh so true. It is always helpful to look to Christ when trying to know how to handle matters of religion. He never lectured or condemned individuals, and in fact reserved His harshest language for the religious leaders of His time. He referred to them as vipers and compared them to graves that were white on the outside but full of filth inside.
God loves HIS children. The question is whether we are all His children. Our actions do not send us to Hell. Lord, we would all go there. The Bible says we are either in the Lamb’s Book of Life or we are not.
I have no idea who is going to Hell. But we know that some people are going there.
I would say that we become children of God when we enter into relationship with Him. The issue being that the unbeliever needs to know that he is separated from God and that only God can restore that relationship.
Fred Rogers lived a Sanctified life and could be assured of his Salvation.
Those are interesting little facts...who served and when.
James “Scotty” Doohan of Star Trek fame:
He was part of the Normandy Invasion, and was wounded. (from Wikipedia: “His first combat assignment was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers along the way, Doohan led his unit to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines and took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan took six rounds from a Bren gun fired by a nervous sentry:[3] four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was halted by the silver cigarette case he carried, and his wounded finger was amputated which he would conceal during his career as an actor.”
Lee Marvin:
“He left school to join the U.S. 4th Marine Division, serving as a sniper. Marvin was wounded in action during the WWII battle of Saipan, eight months prior to the battle of Iwo Jima. Most of his platoon were killed during the battle. This had a significant effect on Marvin for the rest of his life.[1] He was sent home with a medical discharge and a rank of PFC.”
David Niven:
He was a British Commando, and came ashore in Normandy several days ahead of the invasion.
Don Adams (Get Smart):
Was on Guadalcanal as a US Marine, was wounded, contracted malaria and nearly died from blackwater fever. He was pretty debilitated for a long time...
Eddie Albert (From Green Acres):
This one really surprised me. From Wikipedia: “Albert served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II. A genuine war hero, he was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, when, as a landing ship pilot, he rescued 70 wounded Marines while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.”
Jack Palance...Jimmy Stewart...the list goes on.
Check out this link, it is very interesting reading!
http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/military/actors_in_wwii.html
I used to be a genuine tough guy. Now I’m a hands-on Grandpa. Rogers is my role model, and I’m not kidding.
Paradise 1.0 turned out to be incompatible with human nature. I doubt that any paradise that did not have to be earned in some measure could be any better. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus explains that salvation will be available to those who can truly repent of their sins and ask forgiveness, but that's not necessarily as easy as it sounds.
Rofl! That would of been great.
bttt
Great clips - thanks!
I don’t know who couldn’t shed a tear as Mr. Rogers sings to, then with, the disabled child in the wheelchair.
bttt
Man, when I first saw the title of this thread, it scared the beejeavers out of me. I thought it was going to have something yucky in it! Whew.
I love that guy. Wish I could have met him.
Not even to mention the whole 'love thine enemies' teachings of Jesus:
Matthew 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. [44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (KJV)
This also seems relevant:
John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. (KJV)
You are absolutely right, potlatch.
Thanks for the ping.
I enjoyed the article.
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