Would You Be Mine...Could You Be Mine?

Back in August after watching the Mr. Roger's documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the Mr mentioned he'd like to go to the Fred Roger's Museum featured in it.  I tucked that away because I knew we weren't going on a vacation for his birthday this year and thought that might be a nice surprise.  I got in touch with the Fred Rogers Center in Latrobe, PA and asked if they had any major events planned as we were making a pretty long haul and didn't want to be inundated with kids.  She said we were good to go.  (I should mention they're only open on weekdays so that kind of sucks so I planned a Friday visit on his birthday.)  The night before I told him we were going somewhere for his birthday and we needed to be up well before the intergluteal cleft of dawn.

We got there around 11am on a nice, brisk fall day.

(You see this and think "dang this place is huge!  AWESOME!")

We entered on the first floor, and it looked like a bunch of conference rooms on the left but on the right were little windows into a big room full of props and boxes of fan mail.

(King Friday's castle and random heads that are spooky out of context)

We were happy to see the castle, but on the documentary, it gave the impression you could see it up close, so that was a little disappointing.

That was the last of anything we recognized, the pics below are awful because I had to arch and angle to try to get them in the shot and the glare in that place is horrible, but you get the idea.

I must mention this when we went back down later before we left to see the castle one last time, the lights were off!!  This was in the middle of the day, there was no reason for them to be off especially when this is open to the public, and none of the things I took pics of above were visible.  So should you visit and it's dark through the Archive windows, find someone and tell them to turn on the lights.

There were only a few pictures in this area, and the Mr and I got very nervous because we'd (he'd) just drove a LONG way, and this was looking like a big, fat bust.  We hit the bathrooms and prayed there was something better on the second floor.

We were greeted with this.

(Literally, this is the whole "museum"...one room.)

We were greeted with a TON more conference rooms and one big(ish) room that was the "museum."  So be aware, this isn't a museum as you may picture it, it's a room.  Granted a room with stuff from your childhood but a room none the less and makes you look at each other with a bit of disappointment and your eye twitch after such a long drive.  Movin' on.

They had little "fact dots" all over the room so I'll show those to you here and there.  Stuff like this:

(I'm sure Mr. Rogers forgave them but that's being kept in a permanent file in the karma department.  You don't steal regardless of whose car it is!  Yeesh!)

 Here's another one:

(If I did all of that before "really" starting my day, I'd need a nap!)

This one escaped my memory bank, but the Mr. seemed to remember it.

They had all of the puppets from the series so you could see them up close.  Most of them held up incredibly well.

Except for ol' Daniel.  He looks like a Golden Retriever carried him in its mouth, took him through a river and shook him on a daily basis.  But at least his snazzy watch was still intact!

(I beg to differ because according to Daniel's personal watch, as they say, it's 5 o'clock somewhere!)

The star of the show for us was seeing the Neighborhood Trolley which took you from reality to the land of make-believe.

The Mr was especially happy about seeing his favorite "character" from the show, so that was a nice moment.

FACT DOT!

Of course, it wouldn't be a visit to Mr. Rogers place without seeing some of his iconic sweaters and shoes.

FACT DOT!

(Can you imagine being married by Mr. Rogers?)

I thought this was kind of neat.

In a case outside of the room, they had some handwritten sketches and skits from Fred.

Just a reminder...

If you forgot your sweater, they've got a "head in a hole" so you can be just like Mr. Rogers.

The Fred Rogers Center is on the beautiful campus of St. Vincent's College.

Afterward, we enjoyed a packed lunch that I think Mr. Rogers would've approved of overlooking the campus, a PB&J, banana, and some carrots.

The Fred Rogers Center
300 Fraser Purchase Road
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
15650-2690
Phone: 724.805.2750
Fax: 724.805.2761
info@fredrogerscenter.org

We both enjoyed poking around and because it was so small, we went around the room three times.  We were the only ones there sans a few college kids passing by with looks of "why are these middle age schmucks taking so long in there?"  I really feel I need to drive home just how small it is so that if you see the amazing documentary and get all jacked to go that you're not going just to only see that like we did.  It is not worth a special trip like we made and you can see a lot of the same stuff on the website (or honestly, here.)  I don't want to dissuade anyone from going but just to say make sure it's on the way somewhere or you have other things planned maybe in Pittsburgh or something.  I think it would've been nice for the lady to mention when replying to my email about any mass field trips or events planned that she could've mentioned, "you know it's like, a room, right?"

What was your favorite character on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood?  Fred or someone/something else?

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