Fred Rogers

Once upon a time, there was a man named Tony.  Tony was a good man with an all too-kind disposition in a very not-kind world but refused to let that get him down.  He had a great job as a public speaker (he literally traveled the world getting paid to talk to people) and the subject of many of his talks was about happiness.  The thing that made him most happy was his family: good marriage and six kids (he's one of those kind of crazy people.)

He was out in the mid-West one day several years back (probably another of his speaking tours) and stopped in a restaurant in-between places.  He had just finished his meal when he saw a familiar face.  As the waitress came around, he said, "Is that Mr. Rogers?"

The waitress smiled and said, "Yes, he comes here pretty regular.  He's a good friend of mine."

"You know, he did a lot of good for my kids with his television programming.  Could you tell him 'thank you' for me?"

"Why don't you go over and tell him yourself?"

"Oh, I don't bother him.  I'm sure he gets sick of random people like me showing up."

"No! He loves it."

After some hemming and hawing and her prodding him to get a move-on, Tony finally got up and walked to Mr. Rogers table.  He did what he said he'd do: offer to shake his hand and say "thank you" for having a program that helped all his children while growing up.

Mr. Rogers smiled and asked about all six of his kids.  Tony started to give a list of the names but Mr. Rogers stopped him.  He grabbed a napkin and a pen and said, "Write their names down for me here."  Tony complied and as soon as all six names were written, Mr. Rogers began asking about each kid, starting from the top.  For several minutes, Tony answered every question about his kid and towards the end, Mr. Rogers said, "You're a great dad."

Tony was a bit stunned but he was also aware of what Mr. Rogers was doing.  After all, hadn't Tony been doing public relations for a living?  Mr. Rogers had asked the questions and controlled the conversation, so all they had been talking about was Tony.  Tony tried to take control and asked Mr. Rogers about himself.  "What brings this way?"

"I have a friend in Native American relations and he was going to show me something neat," (I paraphrase).  "What brings you this way?"

And there Tony went, talking about himself with Mr. Rogers interrupting again with the same compliment as before.  By the time they finished talking, Tony walked out to his car singing "It's a Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood."

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This is a true story, by the way.  I heard it almost two years ago from Tony, who I greatly respected.  Now Tony is the friendliest man I've ever met and when he shared this experience, he said that Mr. Rogers was the friendliest man in the world.  Indeed, Tony gave the impression that he wanted to be Mr. Rogers when he grew up.

It's been years since I watched any of his shows.  I think the last time I did, I was ten.  I don't believe PBS broadcasts any episodes anymore, so I'm out of luck altogether when I finally grow up and have a family, too.

What brought this up?  I found a small book the other day, The World According to Fred Rogers, which is full of quotes from Mr. Rogers, regarding the most important things he ever said or did.  It took me an hour to read and days to ponder over what was in there.

Since this was also a posthumous collection, there was also a sweet foreward from his widow and a biography in the back.  Anyways, I highly recommend reading it and sharing it with your friends.  It's a shame that the rising generation may forget what an influence he had over us, not just from his show that went throughout the world but also each soul he touched individually on the daily course of his life.  Character is shown by how you conduct yourself one-on-one, not just in front of a group, and the story that I just told and was told to me is my proof that Mr. Rogers character was strong indeed.