My Favorite Seuss

Tonight we were sitting around talking and my cousin's little girl was pulling story books out of her collection.  They had recently unearthed a bunch of Dr. Seuss, and she had one of my very favorite ones from when I was a child myself, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.  I looked at it for the first time in probably 20 or more years.  It's amazing to me how much I remember and how much of it I'd forgotten.

I'd forgotten how nice the art really was.  I remembered Bartholomew and all his hats. I remembered that they got more and more interesting as time went on, but I forgot all the intricacies of those he met.  I had forgotten almost all of the details of the plot.  I had forgotten why I loved the book in the first place.  I had forgotten that I liked his calmness in face of trouble and persecution, his confidence in his rightness and honesty.

I used to make my Dad read this one to me night after night when I was little to the point that he finally would say, "I'll read you anything you want that's not Bartholomew Cubbins."  It makes me laugh now to think about it.  Part of it was that it is such a long story, and that meant that I got to spend more time with him reading to me, of course, but I did really like the intricate story.  So many of the stories were predictable and fluffy.  I guess even as a little kid I wasn't much into that.

I am glad my cousin's little girl is going to have the rich experience with Dr. Seuss that we all grew up with.  I'd hate to think of somebody missing him.  Every person has an individual favorite, and who knows what hers will wind up being.  As for me, I think I'll go see if I can dig my copies up and see what else I may have forgotten from those dusty volumes.