Jimbo's right.

The people I've met on the job over the last eleven years could constitute a real cast of characters, and at times even a rogues' gallery. You've been promised a glimpse of some of the more unusual and even notorious ones, and that promise will be kept soon. But there is someone who I'd like you to meet first. You may already know him, or at least know his name...your kids, or kid brothers and sisters, may well know him even better.

They already know what I just found out.

Esquire's cover story a few months back was right.

Fred Rogers is a hero.

He is being honored by one of our local museums with a season-long special display that takes child and adult alike into the "neighborhood" he first invited America to visit back in 1968. He's been building that neighborhood a lot longer than that, first in the 1950s back in his home market of Pittsburgh, then in Canada, and finally in America's living rooms. I got the privilege of spending a little time with him recently.

Through it all, one thing comes through...this man truly cares for people, and especially, loves kids. He is one of the most genuine and sincere men you are ever likely to meet. We talked for a little over an hour live on the air...his slow, gentle drawl is unmistakeable and instantly recognizable. So is his sincerity. He truly believes that "every child needs and deserves to be loved and respected for who he or she is." His whole working life is designed to give children that one piece of knowledge that can give them the strength to get through life's troubles and enable them to love and care for others.

Fred Rogers also is a man of the cloth (Presbyterian, to be exact) and he told me he sees his ministry as a simple one---to give kids an understanding of love and caring, and let them know they're valuable and special people. I wonder how many kids might not have ever heard that from anyone if they hadn't heard it from him...and how many kids have grown up to be loving adults with a sense of self-worth because they sensed the love in him. A lot, I'd bet.

Esquire called him a hero because he does something not too many do...live by what he believes in. Unlike a lot of heros, though, he's a very gentle man, just as he appears on the tube---and he has a sense of humor as well. He especially enjoys telling about the time he came to the studios of NBC's Saturday Night Live some 17 years ago when Eddie Murphy was doing his ghetto-themed parody "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood." He walked unannounced into a rehearsal--and made Murphy's jaw drop almost to the floor. They then met and hugged---because it so happens that Rogers thinks Murphy's take is hilarious, not to mention good social satire. (Murphy and his kids, by the way, have all grown up to be big fans.)

True confession? When our local public TV station used to run him at 5:30 every afternoon, I'd sometimes tune him in myself to relax, unwind and take myself to a world where life was easier, more relaxed and less competitive and crazy. He airs in the morning now, and it wouldn't surprise me to find that a lot of adults tune him in to give their day a more positive start, just like their kids do before going off to school. He has something to say about adults like us too, by the way. He thinks every one of us has a valuable story to tell and a lesson to teach from our own lives and experiences.

Fred Rogers has built a beautiful Neighborhood. Guess you'd say it's a neighborhood of the heart and the imagination. He says he's inviting all of us to live there.

I think I'm moving in.

But as you'll find out in upcoming posts, I'll bring a few rascals and rogues along with me....I think you'll enjoy meeting them too.

'Till next time...

Bob