It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

The Gayla Pink Apple



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Hi Make-Believe Neighbor! 

            Glad We're Together Again..

 

 It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Mister Rogers

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Won't You Be My Neighbor

 

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,

A beautiful day for a neighbor,

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?

  

It's a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

 

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

  

So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
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?

Mister Rogers' would have celebrated his 85th birthday this past Wednesday, which got me to thinking about Mister Rogers' television show, and reminiscing when my daughter was young, many mornings we'd watch the show together.  WE LOVED MISTER ROGERS and often started our beautiful day in the neighborhood with him and his neighborhood of make-believe. 

During the opening of each episode, Mister Rogers entered singing "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"  He hangs his coat in a closet, puts on his cardigan zipper sweater, and removes his dress shoes to put on sneakers.

I think make-believe is wonderful for children - using their imagination - playing make-believe.  When my daughter was young she had a make-believe sister/friend.  I encouraged her to play make-believe and that make-believe friend or sister was just a part using her imagination. 

 

Yes, she knew she didn't actually have a sister.  I'd tell her the difference between a real sister or friend and a make-believe pretend sister or friend.  DUH!  I recall the mother of one of my daughter's young friends commented to me that she thought my daughter needed a sibling because she talked about her sister which didn't exist.  Really, lady??  As the smoke escaped from my ears, I confirmed that, yes, indeed, we have a make-believe sister and make-believe friends which often were integrated into our make-believe world of pretend and imagination.  But, under no circumstances did that exhibit anything other than my child showing her imagination and play as a young child.   

 Our basket of puppets - Do you see X the Owl?

(There's also a bumble bee; ladybug; piggy; puppy dog and more)

Puppets - we played with puppets a lot and loved to read books and use our puppets to go along with the stories.  Do you remember Mister Rogers' puppets?  

Lady Elaine

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe

 

Do you remember Lady Elaine?  The curator of the museum-go-round which contained everything from A-Z.  Lady Elaine was kind of an outspoken character with strong opinions always getting into things.  I thought she was funny. 

X the Owl

What about X the Owl?  We actually have an X the Owl puppet (shown in the photo above in our basket of puppets.)  I guess it goes without saying, since we had, and still have, the puppet, X the Owl was one of our favorites.  He lived in a knot hole in the tree and loved to learn all kinds of things. He was a happy 'nifty-galifty' owl.  He was always enrolled in correspondence school and his best friend was his next door neighbor Henrietta Pussycat. We loved her too!

 

Mr. McFeely and Purple Panda

McCain Mall - North Little Rock - 1994

Top photo: Blair, Gayla, and Randy with Purple Panda

 

I do not recall all of the characters and puppets. But, two other favorite characters we loved were Mr. McFeely and Purple Panda.  Mr. McFeely the "Speedy Delivery" guy and always in a hurry.  Purple Panda from Planet Purple where everything was purple and everything the same.  He could magically go places "the purple way" of just thinking himself there!  We had the opportunity to chat and visit with Mr. McFeely and Purple Panda when they made a stop in Arkansas.  Blair was about 4 1/2 years old (above photos.)

 

It was just cool, wholesome, make-believe fun which all kids should be given the opportunity to explore, in my opinion anyway! 

 

Last, but not least, in the closing of each episode, Mister Rogers sings "It's Such a Good Feeling" as he removes his sneakers and puts his shoes back on, and then switches out of his sweater and back to his coat.

At the end of the song, he reminds us that "You always make each day a special day. You know how: By just your being you/yourself. There's only one person in the (whole) world that's like you, and that's you. And people can like you just/exactly the way you are."   

 

It's Such A Good Feeling

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive.
It's such a happy feeling: You're growing inside.
And when you wake up ready to say,
 'I think I'll make a snappy new day.'
It's such a good feeling, a very good feeling,
The feeling you know that we're friends.
 

Snappy New Day, and
I like you just the way you are,

Gayla