Fred Rogers: I think one of the best things that we can do as parents is to remember what
it was like to be a child. Get to know who the children are. Ask them to help you.
Introduce them to people of excellence and tell them what you expect of them. Expect their best,
but not perfection. David Gardner: And so let me ask,
what do you think parents should be teaching their kids about money?
Rogers: I feel that feelings about money -- you know, saving and spending, holding back and
letting go -- start very early in our lives. Stingy people have often been forced to give
when they were very young, when they weren't ready. And generous people have often been
really appreciated when they were very young. I think it's so important to remember that
everyone has something to give. Everyone has something to give. And everyone needs something
to receive. There isn't anybody in the world who is completely self-sufficient.
And there isn't anyone who doesn't have at least something to give.
Tom Gardner: You were born in the western Pennsylvania town of Latrobe in 1928. That,
of course, a year before the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.
There are a lot of people today who are looking at their financial situation after what's
happened with the market and reevaluating their priorities. What was your experience
with money growing up, during and just after the Great Depression?
Rogers: I think most of us who grew up in the depression are quite conscious of being
careful with money and other things. I mean, probably the roots of my recycling start in
the Depression. I recycle everything I possibly can find. I'll stop my car and pick up a plastic
bottle on the street and take it home to recycle. But when the tenor of the whole country is
such that everything is limited, that sticks with you. I was only two, three, four years
old at that time, and yet, you get those attitudes from the people that you live with, those
who are closest to you. David Gardner: Mr. Rogers, since both Tom
and I grew up watching your show, we're well aware of you as a persona. That's why I have
to ask, is Fred Rogers Fred Rogers? Rogers: My wife says it best. People say to
her, "Is he really like that?" And she said, "What you see is what you get." And I don't
know whether you sense that from our visit here today. But, I think the greatest gift
that anybody can give anybody else -- as a matter of fact, the only unique gift that
anybody can give -- is his or her honest self. Nobody could give you, Dave, to anybody else.
Nobody could give you, Tom, to anybody else. You're the only one who can give yourself
to somebody else. David Gardner: It makes complete sense.
And, obviously, you have lived what you've just described. And, when I think about back, watching
your show, and as I hear you speak now, you project such a sense of calmness. You create
a tremendous sense of calm in the people who listen to you. Do you ever go a little bit crazy?
Do you ever get angry? Rogers: Oh, sure. In fact, I wrote a song.
[singing] "What do you do with the mad that you feel when you feel so mad you could bite?"
Well, a little child said that once. I get angry when I think that justice isn't being served.
To me, justice is taking care of those who aren't able to take care of themselves.
That's the kind of thing that can get up my ire. Well, you asked!
Tom Gardner: Let's talk a little bit more
about justice just briefly. Some of our listeners may not know that you're also an ordained
Presbyterian minister. As someone who's spent your life talking about values, living those
values, what's your take on some of the scandals that have played out in corporate America
over the last few years, speaking about not taking care of the people that we work with,
in many cases? Rogers: Exactly. What do you think it is that
drives people to want far more than they could ever use or need? I, frankly, think it's insecurity.
How do we let the world know that the trappings of this life are not the things that are ultimately
important for being accepted? That's what I've tried to do all through the years with
the Neighborhood. It's you I like. It's not the things you wear. It's not the way you
do your hair, but it's you I like, the way you are right now, the way down deep inside you.
Not the things that hide you, not your fancy toys. They're just beside you, but it's
you I like, every part of you. Your skin, your eyes, your feelings, whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember even when you're feeling blue, that it's you I like, it's you yourself, it's you.