Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is something I recall as a feeling rather than a specific set of memories. Wikipedia claims there was a whole cast of characters—Mr. McFeely, Pilot Ito, Officer Clemmons, and a few dozen puppets—but I don’t remember them. With the passage of time, the show’s details have collapsed into a singular sense of comfort and safety, the sensation of laying on the carpet in front of grandma’s wood-paneled TV with the big, clicky knobs. Or, at least, that’s what I think it looked like.
Fred Rogers instilled the value of imagination and conscientiousness in American children for nearly 40 years. Over the next 18 days, PBS is streaming every episode of his landmark show over Twitch without commercials as part of a fundraiser. Nostalgia can be good, in limited doses, so feel free to revisit that familiar place filled with ragtime and neighbors who like you just the way you are.