The television personality Mr. Rogers has been said to have been a Navy seal. It was also said he was a sniper and had many confirmed kills. The story goes he wears sweaters to cover up all his tattoos. None of these are true facts. Mr. Rogers was one of the most beloved children’s performers. He was never in the military and was not wearing sweaters to cover tattoos. As a matter of fact all of the sweaters he wore were made by his mother. Rogers pushed for allowing people to make copies of television programs so they could watch them at a later time. He was a puppeteer, educator, Presbyterian Minister, composer, songwriter and author. Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. TV Guide listed him in the top 50 greatest stars of all time. One of his sweaters appears in the Smithsonian Institution and is called a treasure of American history.

One myth which has been around for a long time states that Walt Disney had his body frozen. It goes on to say that Disney made arrangements to be frozen, because he believed future technology would be able to bring him back to life. There is one big floor with this myth and that is there are records showing he was cremated in 1966. I really don’t believe anyone who was cremated was thinking about being frozen do you?

Some of the myths which are making the rounds seem better suited to tales told around the campfire. One such myth has to do with a student in college. It states a student wanted to study for a test she was taking the next day. Didn’t wanted to disturb her roommate so she decided to take her books down to the lobby where there were plush chairs and sit in one to study. As she studied night descended and she realized she had left one of her books up in her room. She climbed back up the staircase, got to the room and slowly opened the door as not to disturb her sleeping roommate. She noticed an odd smell in the room and could hear dripping and thought to herself they would have to notify housing to get a plumber in the morning. She kept the light off so not to wake her roommate, felt around until she got the book and left. She went back downstairs and sat back down in a chair and studied until 6 o’clock in the morning. It had started to get light and she decided to go back to the room and trying to get a couple of hours of sleep before she had to take a test. When she opened the door to her room a terrible smell met her nostrils and she could see her roommate spread eagle on the bed with her throat cut and blood dripping onto the floor. Written in blood on the wall was,” Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?”

There is a story that has been going around for many years and concerns St. Basal’s Cathedral in Russia. St. Basal’s Catherdral has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. The Cathedral was said to have been built in the 14th century on orders from Ivan the Terrible and that after it was built Ivan gathered up all the architects and had them blinded so they could never build anything as beautiful again. It’s funny how stories like this persist. There is one problem with this story however and it is that for years after Ivan the Terrible died they were again hired to add extensions to the Cathedral. It is almost assuredly they would not have been able to do this if they all had been blinded.

There is a lighthouse on Fire Island in New York. The name of the lighthouse keeper was Nathaniel Smith and he and his family lived nearby during its construction. His daughter got very sick and it took three days for medical assistance to reach her. By that time she had died. There are 182 steps leading to the top of the lighthouse and it is said as you climb them you can hear a man moaning about his lost daughter and when you reach the top you can hear footsteps on the stairs.

It is hard to tell the difference between urban legends, myths and some fairytales, but I guess it really doesn’t matter since most of them aren’t true anyway. I’d like to finish up with one that’s considered an urban legend. It has to do with a man who was driving on the highway at night and sees a car coming with its lights off. He flashes his lights at the car and immediately as the car passes it turns around and starts chasing him. The car runs him off the road and people get out and kill him. The legend says there are gangs driving around in cars with their lights out at night who are going to kill the first person in a car who flashes their lights at them.