It's a beautiful day in this     neighborhood ...
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please?.
Please won't you be my neighbor?

The above words and their melody are very familiar to me.  If you don't know it yourself, you probably aren't a parent or grandparent of children born in the 1970's, 1980's, or 1990's.  More than one generation of children grew up with Mister Fred Rogers and his beautiful day in the neighborhood.  The very first generation that came to know him includes my children. 
I often watched Mister Rogers with my kids, or heard him from another room, so he's not a stranger to me either.  As a matter of fact, it seems just the opposite.
On his website I read ... "Fred Rogers, beloved host of the PBS children's television Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, died today, February 27th, 2003, at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after a brief battle with stomach cancer.  He was 74 years old.  During his career of service to children and their families, Rogers was the recipient of two Peabody Awards, four Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush."
I also read that Mister Roger's Neighborhood is the longest running program on public television.  For the most part, I'm not too happy with public television today.  It's taken on a strange slant that seeks to rewrite history and promote multicultural diversity at the expense of truth and right thinking, and it uses taxpayer dollars for the perversion.
But Mister Rogers was not of that ilk.  His commitment to kindness and learning did not entail the rewriting of history or current events.  His commitment led to peace, not conflict.
I do have to admit that for a while I thought Mister Rogers was boring -- and most certainly boring compared to the Sesame Street show that immediately followed it.  Sesame Street had Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch and Bert and Ernie and Big Bird.  Do you remember Grover?  I bought a cuddly blue Grover, with loose blue legs and arms, for Nick one year for Christmas, and they became fast friends.  Nick was one year old at the time.
Anyhow, on Sesame Street my kids picked up reinforcement on the alphabet and numbers and colors and many things that a young parent might call "educational."
But I came to see that my kids gave a special kind of attention, almost a reverence, to Mister Rogers and his neighborhood.   It was related to the heart, you see, more than the intellect.  It was peaceful.  It taught softly as we followed the trolley to the world of make-believe. 
Kindness was the key word from beginning to end in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  With kindness in place, it was always a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  And you know what?  It coincided with the very neighborhood in which my kids were growing up.  It was also a beautiful day in the Schutz Lake neighborhood where the children became like brothers and sisters to our own, and their parents our dearest friends.  We traveled together, played cards together, ate dinners together, stayed out late together.  We didn't agree on everything, but we could always hold hands and hug on our way out the door.
It's almost eerie that Mister Rogers has passed on at this time.  Our neighborhood -- as we knew it -- has also passed on.  Most of our growing up neighbors have moved to other places.   Do some of you recall the Shaws and Balls and Bowsers?  How about the Plochers and Hubers and Willems?  Remember the Rupps and Holways and Proffits?  Or the Raiche's, Rodgers, and Roths?  There are many others who have come and gone from our Schutz Lake neighborhood since its beginning just over 30 years ago.  It's been quite a turnover in a neighborhood that is considered "stable," even "charming."
Allan and I, youngsters that we are, have now lived here longer than anyone else.  We don't know everyone in our neighborhood by name any more, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal.  We wave or don't wave, which sorta depends on the traffic or cell phones or sun shining in our eyes.  The world seems much bigger today as the trolley moves a little faster and farther.
Meanwhile, like so many of our old friends, Mister Rogers finds himself in another neighborhood, a beautiful one, I dare say, not one of make-believe and magical trolleys, but one that knows perfect Kindness.  He should be feeling right to home.  If God speaks English or sings a bit like us, I bet He met Mister Rogers with ...

It's a beautiful day in this     neighborhood ...
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please?.
Please won't you be my neighbor?

                             
                 --Sue