Tell Me, Mister Rogers [1975]

These two books aren't hard to come by. You've likely seen one or both before.

 

Mister Rogers Talks About and Tell Me Mister Rogers are both hardbound publications which include collections of short stories/lessons on various topics affecting young people. As you can see from the covers, the topics include everything from getting a haircut to fear of thunder and lightning.

The lessons within these books are presented through the use of "real world" photography rather than the familiar characters seen on the Neighborhood program. In fact, Mister Rogers himself appears only on the covers each book. Flipping through Tell Me Mister Rogers, there were several photographs that stuck out.

First, I just can't get enough of the early 1970s fashion trends. These books came out in 1974 and 1975 so the plaid pants certainly weren't a surprise.

 

Apples for 33 cents a pound? I went grocery shopping this morning and paid a dollar a pound...on sale. I suppose tripling in price over the course of almost forty years is no surprise either.

I like the fact that the photography in this book is not polished. I'm not talking about the quality of the photos but rather the content. Check out the writing on the dresser drawer behind the kid in this picture. I would think that this wouldn't hit the presses in most books.

On a side note, this picture hit home a bit as my youngest daughter recently colored the inside of a drawer on a brand new end table. At least it was on the inside.

This is one of my favorite pictures in the book as Fisher Price Little people were some of my favorite childhood toys. For those of you old enough to remember, Little People used to be smaller with very few actual features. Most were a body, a head, and a face. Then after a number of years, these were determined to be choking hazards and Fisher Price started making the current Little People which are much larger with more detailed features.

I love the fact that my kids prefer the old ones.

More than any other in the book, though, this picture caught my eye.

Published in 1975, Tell Me Mister Rogers came out several years before any toy version of Daniel Striped Tiger that I'm aware of. Either the puppet seen in this picture just coincidentally looks like Daniel, or there is some obscure early-1970s mechandise out there that needs to be dug up.

(Plus, that's the box for a Fisher Price Little People houseboat in the background.)