What Fred Rogers did for PBS....

[Sukhoi]

He was an awesome guy.

 

[BullsOnParade]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
I think I started watching this show in 1975? Who still remember's Lady Elaine?

Many good memories. Good man. :thumbsup:

I definitely had the hots for Lady Elaine.

 

[markgm]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: icyroy05
Mr. Rogers was probably one of the creepiest people ever.

Fixed.

Actually you broke it. He was an honest guy who did what he really believed in his heart was the best thing to help all children. He did all this without anyone having to worry that he might be doing something to kids or that he was trying to cash in on something like people worry about now with everyone from babysitters, teachers, and religious figures to pop and movie stars.

A lot of people who grew up watching him were from families that didn't have a lot of money or just had it tough. He gave them hope and security which they weren't able to get from home. He gave people something to dream for and a reason to better ourselves. It's easy to forget that when a lot of us were kids we grew up in larger families that were making less money with only one working parent. Kids today have no idea how different things were just 20 years ago. One car, no cul-de-sacs, no million activities after school, houses without a million bedrooms, bathrooms, computers, or TVs... People wonder why now we have all these issues with kids. While we try to make the world a better place for our kids, maybe we should step back and look at what Mr. Rogers had to say. I know my family didn't have a lot of money growing up, but I also know that we were happy.

50% of people swear that Baby Einstein is good for babies; the other 50% says it's worthless. How much does that crap even cost? No one doubted the lessons that Mr. Rogers taught were good lessons that every child should know, and they were free thanks to public television.

 

[GeneValgene]

check out this story taken from an Esquire article in 2003, written by Tom Junod:

link

Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. It was not his fault. He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk. This boy had a very bad case of cerebral palsy, and when he was still a little boy, some of the people entrusted to take care of him took advantage of him instead and did things to him that made him think that he was a very bad little boy, because only a bad little boy would have to live with the things he had to live with. In fact, when the little boy grew up to be a teenager, he would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself, hard, with his own fists and tell his mother, on the computer he used for a mouth, that he didn't want to live anymore, for he was sure that God didn't like what was inside him any more than he did. He had always loved Mister Rogers, though, and now, even when he was fourteen years old, he watched the Neighborhood whenever it was on, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. She and the boy lived together in a city in California, and although she wanted very much for her son to meet Mister Rogers, she knew that he was far too disabled to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, so she figured he would never meet his hero, until one day she learned through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that Mister Rogers was coming to California and that after he visited the gorilla named Koko, he was coming to meet her son.

At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous, in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room and talk to him. Mister Rogers didn't leave, though. He wanted something from the boy, and Mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. He just waited patiently, and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers talked to him, and then he made his request. He said, "I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?" On his computer, the boy answered yes, of course, he would do anything for Mister Rogers, so then Mister Rogers said, "I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?" And now the boy didn't know how to respond. He was thunderstruck. Thunderstruck means that you can't talk, because something has happened that's as sudden and as miraculous and maybe as scary as a bolt of lightning, and all you can do is listen to the rumble. The boy was thunderstruck because nobody had ever asked him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he'd try, and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore, because he figures Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too.

As for Mister Rogers himself?well, he doesn't look at the story in the same way that the boy did or that I did. In fact, when Mister Rogers first told me the story, I complimented him on being so smart?for knowing that asking the boy for his prayers would make the boy feel better about himself?and Mister Rogers responded by looking at me at first with puzzlement and then with surprise. "Oh, heavens no, Tom! I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession."

 

[Mo0o]

I always wondered why he had to wear shoes in his house or why he always zipped up his sweater then pulled it down a little bit. Why couldnt he just stopw here he wanted the zipper to be.

 

[BoomerD]

Great man. AFAIK, he lived what he believed. My kids grew up watching his shows and (hopefully) learning to be good people...
BUT, I ALWAYS wondered about him and Mrs. McFeely...
RIP Fred Rogers

 

[Taggart]

Wow, that clip was moving. Funny how a little snippet of video can do that.