[OT] Mister Rogers Dead at 74

[Meridian]

My first reaction: "Ohhhh."

Children have an infinite capacity for love, given in perfect and total trust, if their immediate environment doesn't crush it out of them.

To a poor 6 year old kid living in a Brooklyn tenement, he was pretty much the relative living behind the magic screen. He was wise, soft-spoken, imaginative, fun, and patient.

Every time a figure out of my childhood dies, I feel like the inner child in me dies a little too.

He opened my mind when it could have been filled with garbage that TV dumps on our kids nowadays. His show was a window into a reality that allowed me to believe in magic and hope and dreams, and that the world was not all pain and hunger and cold.

I haven't cried for many people I haven't met. Today, I and that little boy from so long ago are weeping from the loss, but will remember him in joy.

If it wasn't for him, I might have lost my faith in the wondrous.

RIP Mr. Rogers...

 

[gamecat]

I loved Mr. Rogers. Still do.

 

[Pielorinho]

I loved him as a kid, and then laughed at him as a teenager. The last show of his I ever saw started off with a science experiment: to demonstrate how rainbows work, he took a flashlight and a spray bottle out into his back yard and sprayed the water in front of the flashlight beam. He did this for a couple of minutes, trying to get a rainbow -- to no avail. Finally he came back inside and scribbled in a coloring book while singing a song about how frustrated he was. At that point, I was rolling on the floor with laughter and didn't watch the rest of it.

And that was my last impression of him until sometime last year, when I heard him interviewed on the radio. He was the most freakishly un-self-conscious person I've ever heard: with no sense of irony or self-deprecation, he began a long dialogue in the creakily falsetto voices of Daniel Tiger and Lady Elaine Fairchild, introducing the various characters to the interviewer (who was clearly wigging out).

I mean, it was weird, but it was cool. He was making a fool of himself, but he cared so little about that, that there was nothing foolish about it. And his warmth and love came through over the radio pure and unadulterated in a way I rarely encounter in my adult life.

He was a strange, strange man, but wonderful at the same time. He joins Jim Henson and Dr. Seuss in the pantheon of childhood heroes gone.

Daniel

 

[Ranger REG]

Goodbye, neighbor...

My sympathy and condolences to the America's best neighbor, Mr. Rogers.

If it weren't for him and Sesame Street (who could never forget Mr. Hooper?), my childhood would probably be wasted on Atari Game System.

 

[Lady Starhawk]

:*(

Dr. Suess, Charles Schultz, Jim Henson, Mr Hooper...and now Mr Rogers

I have no words.

Lady Starhawk

 

[Uller]

He was from Latrobe? I didn't know that. Time to raise a pony bottle (or at the very least, a Yeungling).

I'd raise a Yeungling (you must be a Pennsylvanian...since you can properly spell "Yeungling"). Rolling Rock mostly sucks. (Are Presbyterians allowed to drink?)

Anyway...yeah...he's from Latrobe. Here's a link on his life:

http://www.misterrogers.org/mister_rogers_neighborhood/biography.asp

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I heard early in the morning... Ruined my morning. I grew up watching Mr. Rogers--he was always such a friendly guy

 

[Alzrius]

I also just heard, and I'm saddened by the loss of a great man.

Not many people dedicate themselves to others so selflessly, or for so long. Mr. Rogers did both, and he enjoyed doing it. I spent my early years watching his show, and I think I turned out the better for it. I hope they keep running his show for a long time so other kids will have the benefit of being influence by the simple messages of love, understanding, and confidence he inspired.

 

[William Ronald]

I also grew up watching Fred Rogers. He always seemed to be a person who would accept you for who you are. This is something that is often lacking in this world.

In an age when it seems like celebrities try to shock us with their behavior, Fred Rogers never shone the spotlight on himself. His humility and gentleness will be missed.

Peace.