Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood
Sep 18th, 2007 by Bethany
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I like to watch Mister Roger's Neighborhood. My opinion of Mr. Rogers and his show borders on sacred to me and it offends me to see or hear people make fun of him or insinuate anything inappropriate about it. I watched the show on TV when I was a little girl, and now it's nostalgically integrated into my life as the cue for my kids to take a nap–when Mr. Roger's is over, it's naptime!
I just looked it up, and Mr. Rogers had 24 cardigans over the life of the show, all of which his mother made for him by hand. For some reason, having Mr. Rogers change from his coat into his sweater makes me feel good, like things might be right in the world after all. I guess there's something to the assertion that people like structure.
I like the segments where Mr. Rogers takes field trips or watches videos about factories or how things are made. Today he took a trip to a museum, where the tour guide showed him some paintings by great masters and also the bathrooms and the cafeteria kitchen. Maybe my clearest memory about Mr. Roger's Neighborhood from when I was little is the segment about how crayons are made. I loved seeing millions of little crayons lined up in rainbow order. There's that structure thing again.
Colin once made a reference in passing to how weird it is that the delivery man is named Mr. McFeely. I'd never thought of how that could be twisted before, but I feel avenged now that I know that McFeely was Mr. Roger's middle name and that it was a family name from his mother's side. So, no yuckiness there.
I like the fish in the fish tank and how Mr. Rogers feeds them. I like how clean everything is in his house. I like the model of the neighborhood at the beginning and/or end of the episodes and have always wanted to make one of my neighborhood (but where would I put it and which neighborhood would I mimic?). I like trolley's whistle and the episode where Mr. Roger's shows how he makes trolley move. I like the stoplight on the wall that blinks. I like the way Mr. Rogers treats people–it makes me believe that if I'd ever met him he would have liked me because I never saw him act like he disliked anyone.
Fred Rogers died in 2003, just a couple of years after he retired and I'm glad I can pretend he didn't by watching reruns. Thanks for telling us we're each special, just the way we are.
