Grayson
Oh God... I'm English!
It may seem incongruous to put this post here, but I'll wager most of us on the Board grew up with Mister Rogers. And we may need somewhere we can talk about his recent loss.
I worked on his set for two years while attending college, and he was one of the greatest inspirations in my life.
I can offer that even if the only Fred Rogers you ever met was the little man in the zip-up cardigan and the sneakers... you know the real man. He was true to himself and it really shined though on his show.
In 1998 Esquire published an article that truly touched me about Fred Rogers, titled "Can you say... Hero? There is nothing I could say here that the writer Tom Junod has not already said much more eloquently.
Here is an excerpt. You can find the rest of the article at http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030227_mfe_rogershero_10.html
... and have some tissues handy, because you ARE going to cry.
"Yes, at seventy years old and 143 pounds, Mister Rogers still fights, and indeed, early this year, when television handed him its highest honor, he responded by telling television"”gently, of course"”to just shut up for once, and television listened. He had already won his third Daytime Emmy, and now he went onstage to accept Emmy's Lifetime Achievement Award, and there, in front of all the soap-opera stars and talk-show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are"¦.Ten seconds of silence." And then he lifted his wrist, and looked at the audience, and looked at his watch, and said softly, "I'll watch the time," and there was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked"¦and so they did.
One second, two seconds, three seconds"¦and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier, and Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said, "May God be with you" to all his vanquished children.
I worked on his set for two years while attending college, and he was one of the greatest inspirations in my life.
I can offer that even if the only Fred Rogers you ever met was the little man in the zip-up cardigan and the sneakers... you know the real man. He was true to himself and it really shined though on his show.
In 1998 Esquire published an article that truly touched me about Fred Rogers, titled "Can you say... Hero? There is nothing I could say here that the writer Tom Junod has not already said much more eloquently.
Here is an excerpt. You can find the rest of the article at http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030227_mfe_rogershero_10.html
... and have some tissues handy, because you ARE going to cry.
"Yes, at seventy years old and 143 pounds, Mister Rogers still fights, and indeed, early this year, when television handed him its highest honor, he responded by telling television"”gently, of course"”to just shut up for once, and television listened. He had already won his third Daytime Emmy, and now he went onstage to accept Emmy's Lifetime Achievement Award, and there, in front of all the soap-opera stars and talk-show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are"¦.Ten seconds of silence." And then he lifted his wrist, and looked at the audience, and looked at his watch, and said softly, "I'll watch the time," and there was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked"¦and so they did.
One second, two seconds, three seconds"¦and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier, and Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said, "May God be with you" to all his vanquished children.
