The place was drab and dim, with the smell of stalled air and a stain of daguerreotype sunlight on its closed, slatted blinds, and Mister Rogers looked so at home in its gloomy familiarity that I thought he was going to fall back asleep when suddenly the phone rang, startling him. She goes a little knock-kneed, directs a thumb toward her mouth. I could end right here, and I think I’ve already done enough to explain why you need to read this story. It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you.' He finds me, of course, at Penn Station. A clock is a machine that tells people what time it is, but as Mister Rogers sat in the backseat of an old station wagon hired to take him from his apartment to Penn Station, he worried that Maya Lin's clock might be too fancy and that the children who watch the Neighborhood might not understand it. Isn't that wonderful?". You would think it would be easy by now, being Mister Rogers; you would think that one morning he would wake up and think, Okay, all I have to do is be nice for my allotted half hour today, and then I'll just take the rest of the day off….But no, Mister Rogers is a stubborn man, and so on the day I ask about the color of his sky, he has already gotten up at five-thirty, already prayed for those who have asked for his prayers, already read, already written, already swum, already weighed himself, already sent out cards for the birthdays he never forgets, already called any number of people who depend on him for comfort, already cried when he read the letter of a mother whose child was buried with a picture of Mister Rogers in his casket, already played for twenty minutes with an autistic boy who has come, with his father, all the way from Boise, Idaho, to meet him. The boy had never spoken, until one day he said, "X the Owl," which is the name of one of Mister Rogers's puppets, and he had never looked his father in the eye until one day his father had said, "Let's go to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe," and now the boy is speaking and reading, and the father has come to thank Mister Rogers for saving his son's life….And by this time, well, it's nine-thirty in the morning, time for Mister Rogers to take off his jacket and his shoes and put on his sweater and his sneakers and start taping another visit to the Neighborhood. No, he had to show it, he had to demonstrate it, and that's how Mister Rogers and the people who work for him eventually got the idea of coming to New York City to visit a woman named Maya Lin. She was very pretty. No one would ever guess that he’s actually a superhero in disguise. She spent much of her time tending to the sick and the dying. Used with permission. A hero is highly subjective label because it is a contextual term. Mister Rogers still has a ways to go.". Once upon a time, a long time ago, a man took off his jacket and put on a sweater. This article was the basis for the plot of the film, A reprinted copy of this article was included in one variation of. View Article Pages. She and the boy lived together in a city in California, and although she wanted very much for her son to meet Mister Rogers, she knew that he was far too disabled to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, so she figured he would never meet his hero, until one day she learned through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that Mister Rogers was coming to California and that after he visited the gorilla named Koko, he was coming to meet her son. "Bunny Wunny," she says. "When you've got kids looking up to you, you don't want to tarnish that image." Esquire (Magazine) TITLE: Can You Say..."Hero"? At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. I'm listening to these guys when, from thirty feet away, I notice Mister Rogers looking around for someone and know, immediately, that he is looking for me. Would you like to tell me about Old Rabbit, Tom?". I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. And so the next morning, we swam together, and then he put on his boxer shorts and the dark socks, and the T-shirt, and the gray trousers, and the belt, and then the white dress shirt and the black bow tie and the gray suit jacket, and about two hours later we were pulling up to the big brick house on Weldon Street in Latrobe, and Mister Rogers was thinking about going inside. 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." This site is best viewed using the most current version of Google Chrome. "—he turned into Mister Fucking Rogers. "Look at us—I've just met you, but I'm investing in who you are and who you will be, and I can't help it." "Thanks, my dear," he said to me, then turned back to Deb. The old navy-blue sport jacket comes off first, then the dress shoes, except that now there is not the famous sweater or the famous sneakers to replace them, and so after the shoes he's on to the dark socks, peeling them off and showing the blanched skin of his narrow feet. “Be careful, Adam, or you’ll turn her into a real girl.” Adam looked at me. . It's the part he was born to play. Let's change it to 'bring the dog home.'" he asked Bill Isler, president of Family Communications, the company that produces Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. "Can I take your picture, Tom?" Fred…" But Mister Rogers was out of the car, with his camera in his hand and his legs moving so fast that the material of his gray suit pants furled and unfurled around both of his skinny legs, like flags exploding in a breeze. "It's Joanne," he said. The next afternoon, I went to his office in Pittsburgh. She had a long face and a dark blush to her skin. He is on one knee in front of a little girl who is hoarding, in her arms, a small stuffed animal, sky-blue, a bunny. Would you do something for me?" I had never prayed like that before, ever. Subscribe Now! Once upon a time, Mister Rogers went to New York City and got caught in the rain. Your prayers are just wonderful." It would not be easy, no—for in order to win such a battle, he would have to forbid himself the privilege of stopping, and whatever he did right he would have to repeat, as though he were already living in eternity. And all the people who made this house special to me are not here, anyway. Writing a profile on a famous person is supposed to give the reader an insight into that person’s life, much like the piece we read about Joe DiMaggio. Tom Junod on Meeting Fred Rogers of Mr Rogers ... - YouTube They can be someone we've never talked to or someone we see every day. He got out of the car, and, moving as quickly as he had moved to the door of his house, he stepped up a small hill to the door of a large gray mausoleum, a huge structure built for six, with a slightly peaked roof, and bronze doors, and angels living in the stained glass. "Remind you of anyone, Tom?" Oh, Margy Whitmer tried to keep people away from him, tried to tell people that if they gave her their names and addresses, Mister Rogers would send them an autographed picture, but every time she turned around, there was Mister Rogers putting his arms around someone, or wiping the tears off someone's cheek, or passing around the picture of someone's child, or getting on his knees to talk to a child. The Definitive Mr. Rogers Profile: 'Can You Say...Hero?' Nonsense: if you 're not a fool You may always break the rule, But you must be sly; For they'll whip you, past a doubt, If they ever find you out. Now, what the fuck is grace?" Get instant access to 85+ years of Esquire. America's most wholesome actor, Tom Hanks, portrays the world's most wholesome human, Fred Rogers, in the new film A … He wears an undershirt, of course, but no matter—soon that's gone, too, as is the belt, as are the beige trousers, until his undershorts stand as the last impediment to his nakedness. I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without her. I closed the door and sat back down. ", "Old Rabbit. Oh, and I'll bet the two of you were together since he was a very young rabbit. . In the article, headlined Can You Say… Hero?, journalist Tom Junod—the basis for the fictionalized Lloyd—conveys Rogers’ astonishing goodness through a series of anecdotes: Rogers, a … He is losing to it, to our twenty-four-hour-a-day pie fight, to the dizzying cut and the disorienting edit, to the message of fragmentation, to the flicker and pulse and shudder and strobe, to the constant, hivey drone of the electroculture…and yet still he fights, deathly afraid that the medium he chose is consuming the very things he tried to protect: childhood and silence. Otherwise, you can purchase a subscription. There’s a Hero Inside of Everyone, and We’re Not Saying That to Make You Feel Good Science journalist Elizabeth Svoboda’s new book examines the roots and reasons of … Content copyright © The Fred Rogers Company. Second mook: "Huh. Once upon a time, a little boy loved a stuffed animal whose name was Old Rabbit. “He’s my hero.” There was another pause. Then he took off his shoes and put on a pair of navy-blue canvas boating sneakers. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. There was nobody home. He is not speaking of the little girl. But how could Mister Rogers show little becoming big, and vice versa? A person can become a hero by saving someone who is in danger. ", "Maybe a puppet, or a special toy, or maybe just a stuffed animal you loved very much. Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Your hero doesn't even have to be human! He takes a nap every day in the late afternoon—just as he wakes up every morning at five-thirty to read and study and write and pray for the legions who have requested his prayers; just as he goes to bed at nine-thirty at night and sleeps eight hours without interruption. 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