I have such fond memories of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." From the Trolley to Mr. McFeely the mailman guy, my favorite was always the visits to factories to see how things were made. The puppets creeped me out, but overall, fond memories.
This story is not about that Mr. Rogers, it's about Mr. Rodgers spelled with a "d." Mr. Rodgers is not "a regular", more of a frequent flyer. He comes in every few months, some times only twice a year. I've waited on him several times over the years, usually to Notarize random foreign documents for him. Since I've become the director, he seems even more fond of me. When he comes into the library, he walks directly into my office. He doesn't stop at the circulation desk, doesn't hesitate at my office door (even if someone is already in my office), no, he just walks right in and sits down. He never really gets right to the point of his visit, but like always, it usually ends with him needing something notarized. Well, last week while I was working the circulation desk, I noticed he was in the library. But this time he was not alone. There were three other people with him. I immediately took notice, because, he has always come in alone in the past. I mean always. The three people with him were obviously new to the area, one (a male) I'm guessing was closer in age to Mr. Rodgers (late 50s early 60s), the other two were obviously a couple (male and female) and younger, I'd say early 20s. The younger male got a library card using his Colorado Driver's License. The three meandered around the library loudly and Mr. Rodgers seemed to be following them around concerned. After about 30 minutes, the three acquaintances of Mr. Rodgers left and he approached the circulation desk. He let out a long sigh, looked at me, and said "my new house guests." I said "I wasn't going to ask." He said they were all from Texas (a fact I found interesting since one of them had a Colorado Driver's License).
In any case, Mr. Rodgers spent the next 20-30 minutes telling me about how he came to open up his house to this crew. He started his story with "Do you know Jesus?" Now usually, this is where I mention that I'm Catholic and that normally deters any further pursuit of people asking if I've asked Jesus into my heart. But Mr. Rodgers never gave me the chance to talk. He spoke non-stop about his experiences with a local pastor who cast the demons out of one of his house guests. Now who am I to say whether the man was possessed by demons or just crazy, but Mr. Rodgers believed 100 percent in this pastor's abilities to cast out demons and expected that I did too. Of course, I just implemented my "smile and nod response" and prayed that his story would end before Jesus's second coming.
