I'm going to do Things Around My House Thursday a day late. I'm too busy wiping up the EmotionalVomit from yesterday.
Sorry for making a mess, kids.
*hands y'all a towel*.
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Well, if you didn't understand the Romper Room reference the other day, you probably won't understand this one either.
I loved Fred Rogers. I actually had a little cry-fest when he died five years ago. What an amazing man. Sometimes I wonder how I'd have turned out without him telling me how special I was (am) in my most unusual ways.
March 20th is Mr. Rogers birthday, and a Pittsburg group is organizing an event. They are calling for participants worldwide to wear their favorite sweater that day. It doesn't have to be like his (a zip front cardigan), it just needs to be one that makes you feel special.
For those who never watched the program, every episode began with Mr.Rogers returning to his home, where you were waiting for him. He would enter singing, and he would go to the closet, take off and hang up his suit coat, and put on a cardigan (his mother knit the sweaters for him, it turns out...and one of them hangs in the Smithsonian Museum, by the way).
Then he would sit on a bench and change out of his dress shoes into tennis shoes (As an aside, TheMostImportantGuy changes his shoes as he goes in and out of his office, and it is one of the many things about him that makes my heart melt. That, and the time he told me that when he was a little kid he always wanted to grow up to be Oscar Madison).
Read about the event here in this article.
There is a Ravelry Group you can join (go figure) here.
Here is the Mr.Rogers link at PBS (my favorite part is the song list).
Oh, and best?? Here's Mr.McFeely spreading news about the event on YouTube. Watch it an have a little flashback with your morning coffee:
At the end of the clip, it tells you where you can send in a photo or video of yourself making your tribute in your favorite sweater.
Now please excuse me while I go have a "snappy new day"!
I woke up at 3:30am and wasn't able to get back to sleep, sore in many places from dance rehearsal yesterday (it was all about the abs...Oy! Do I need to work out more often!).
PS...thanks to Snarkland for pointing me to the event. I saw the icon for the Ravelry group last night and a smile broke out on my face, but I didn't click through to see that there was an associated event. So thank you!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
you are my friend, you are special....
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8 comments:
It boggles my mind that there might be someone out there who has never seen an episode of Mr. Rodgers. Also, there's a great clip of him lobbying for Public TV, very very poignant. Mr. McFeely looks younger than I think he should.
That made my morning. I watched it while brushing my second-grader's hair, and she said "Hey, I know that show!" Really? Wow. I didn't realize she'd recognize it. I'm glad to know she does. Thanks for prompting that. I have a Mr. Rogers book for preschoolers about disability around here someplace, I should dig it out...
Oh, and I have just the cardigan. Can't wait.
My children (3 years old) have loved Mr. Rogers from the moment they saw the show. He has helped them through their shots and other events. Thanks so much for posting! (Geez, I think I have to knit something quickly)
Oh, and Mr. McFeely looks exactly the same! What is that?!
Thanks for posting the link to my ravelry group! :-)
I cried like a baby when Mr. Rogers died. Seriously, you would have thought my father had died *again*, with the amount of tears I shed. Having grown up in a crazy alcoholic home, Mr. Rogers was the only person other than my grandmother who was telling me that I was special, and that I was okay the way I was. He was a voice of love and patience in the chaos.
I will be wearing a special sweater that day, for sure. But not wool, because I may be weepy all day, and I don't want to felt myself.
Nope, this meant nothing to me either...
EmotionalVomit, however, I do understand
I miss his show, and I miss having a kid young enough for me to watch it with her.
I saw Fred Rodgers several times, at events at WGBH, in a bookstore, and while he was filming scenes on location.
I once watched him film a segment on elevators and escalators in Boston's Transportation Building one day. I was impressed because he helped the crew, taking on menial jobs, and afterward did more than his share cleaning up.
I have heard many people make jokes about him, but I thought that he was a very fine guy.
Like you, I have a very deep, abiding affection for Mr. Rogers, and I start to cry every time I see him on TV or hear his voice at all. I am positive that I would be a raging lunatic if I hadn't had him being so kind to me as a child, even if it was through the television. I don't think anyone in my real life has ever been that unconditionally loving - which is truly a sad commentary on my life. But rather than be morose about it, I cherish Mr. Rogers in my heart and will gladly don a sweater this Thursday in his memory. I'm glad I saw this post in time to participate.
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