I Am From The Neighborhood.

This blog has talked about him before but with the release of "Won't You Be My Neighbor" this summer, a revisit is in order.

Having been born in 1968, I consider myself a resident of Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

I hold Fred Rogers very near and dear to my heart.  In fact, I consider him a relative of sorts, having had formative years during the time when his show, Sesame Street and Electric Company reigned supreme on Public Television.  It can be argued that every children's program on Public Television if not every one of them is indirectly related to that era of TV.

He appeared in my world twice a day, in the morning and the afternoon and he was a grown up I could relate to.  He talked to me, and not "at" me.  When I was very young he was less than a mile away (I lived the first 5 years of my life in Pittsburgh), and when I crossed into the years where I was aging out of his programs target audience, he was 900+ miles away but it felt as if he was in the room with me.

But he was still my neighbor, and my friend

I learned how a grown up drove a bus through his adventures on his show.  I met police officers, firefighters and people who delivered the mail.  Ordinary people doing ordinary jobs that kids saw every day. His show, like Sesame Street and Electric Company, were my generation's video games and internet.  Not only did they serve as a babysitter for us, but a means of learning outside of the classroom as well.

In the end his program, above everything else, relatable to kids watching it. 

Few people walk the earth today with the imagination and decency that Fred Rogers did.  The only other person who comes close in that description would be Jim Henson, who preceded Rogers in death by 13 years.  Henson's genius though, was largely behind the scenes whereas Fred Rogers put himself out there for the kids and that is what made him different, or as he sang in nearly every show, special.

His squareness made him an easy target for comedians who mocked him like Eddie Murphy and the late Robin Williams.  I do not think ill of those guys because it was comedy and not personal attacks on his character.  At least I didn't see it that way.  Hell, I even laughed at it at the time.  But through the jokes at his expense the people making the jokes had a healthy respect for him, and if it bothered him he never let it show.

Fred Rogers had a humanity that is sadly lacking in this day and age.  His optimism would be laughed at and mocked these days, as he believed that everyone had the capacity to be good and decent and he did his best to promote that.  

I remember back in the early 90s he appeared on a late night talk show and he was asked, hypothetically, how he would solve the urban gang problem if ti were up to him.  As if a white man who was famous for a children's television program could answer that question.

He said very simply, "People have to learn to be nice to each other again.".

It was brief, and it was profound.  It was, of course, ignored, but if only people would listen maybe the world would be a better place.

Fred Rogers was my friend.  I celebrate and defend the man's legacy because I am part of it.  This world needs more people like him.  

They're growing up: Two commencement ceremonies in a week...

Last week I attended the commencement exercises for Broken Arrow High School and Sapulpa High School. 

These are the first commencement exercises I attended since my sister graduated from Northeastern State University in 1997 and the first high school graduation since my sister graduated high school in 1989.

So needless to say, my ftiends, with the 30th anniversary of my own graduation and my son's graduation just two short years away, I am feeling old this early morn.  The commencement ceremonies were for the daughters of two of my girlfriends, one an ex and the other with my current.

The whole experience had me thinking back to that May evening in 1987 when my 13 years of formal education came to its end.   Shockingly,  I remember it like it happened just last year in vivid detail.  I was festooned in what my son will be sporting two years from now in the red cap and gown with the tassle with a small brass 87...he'll have an 18 on his.

It was at the Oral Roberts University Mabee Center,  and as I recall the day dawned stormy but cleared before the evening ceremony.   The only family I had attend outside of my immediate was my step aunt and uncle,  my mother's stepbrother and his wife that I had seen married just a month earlier.   My grandmother on my father's side couldn't make it based on her being hard to transport due to her advancing age and my mom's stepmother didn't come either for reasons unknown.

At the time my class was the largest to graduate from Union with 536 students.  In the 30 years since that number doubled as this year's class topped 1100 in their ceremony.   Neither could hold a candle to Broken Arrow High Schools class that hear 1400 and change.

It's humbling to realize a quarter century has come and gone.   The things that have happened in history and the advancements in technology into the 21st Century boggle the mind...and I'm not deliberately being clichéd when I say that.  

The device I'm blogging on right now was unheard of in 1987, for example,  and cable channels stopped under 100. 

There was no HDTV and when you went to the movies you didn't watch them in theaters that have recliners and stadium seating.

Star Wars only had three movies and there were no plans for prequels or episodes beyond Return of the Jedi.

MTV played music videos,  and Michael Jackson and Prince were alive.

I could go on and on.

You'll read in this volume of the Sean graduation two years from now and it'll be worse.   I guess this is a primer for that entry.