Simple Truths of Dr. Seuss Charmed Old and Young

Today is gone, today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

Every day, from here to there,

Funny things are everywhere.

--”One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”

Generations of Theodor Geisel’s readers revisited Who-ville and the Kingdom of Didd on Wednesday, as the death of a man who became part of childhood set off journeys of nostalgia for anyone who had ever cursed the Grinch who stole Christmas.

To Lagoona Fafoona, the prairie of Prax and the beaches of the Sneetches they ventured--some with warm recollections of decades ago, some with fresh memories of bedtime stories read to children just last week.

“We’re mourning him, but everybody is going around saying, ‘remember this that he wrote, and remember that?” said Mardi Snow, spokeswoman for the San Diego Museum of Art, which staged a popular retrospective of Dr. Seuss’ work in 1986. “It’s kind of been nostalgic in a sad-happy way.”

“Most people aren’t going to think of it as he died,” said Bobbie Bagel, manager of The Crow’s Nest children’s bookstore at Seaport Village. “He’s going to always be there, especially for kids.”

Adults with years of exposure to Geisel’s whimsical parables were shaken at the loss of a childhood treasure, usually reacting to the news of Geisel’s death Tuesday with reminiscences about a favorite title.

“On the far-away Island of Sala-ma-Sond, Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond,” said Dr. Howard Taras, a San Diego pediatrician, reciting from memory the opening lines of Yertle’s fall from the top of a tower of turtles when Mack, a turtle at the bottom, burps.

“I think it’s just this great parable of life,” Taras added. “It shows, in a very clever way, how people sometimes step on others to get what they want, but, in the end, a simple circumstance can show us--quickly--exactly where our place is.”

For children, the connection between author and work was more enigmatic.

“Who?” asked kindergartner Amanda La Ragione, when her mother explained Geisel’s death at the Children’s Reading Room of the Central Public Library.

“The Cat in the Hat? I thought the Cat wrote that,” the 5-year-old said.

Dr. Seuss touched them all, in simply rhymed lessons on vanity, bravery, pride, ecology, nuclear war and so much else.

Geisel “spoke to children and adults as well and had a profound humanist message about truth and beauty for us all,” said Sandra Dijkstra, a Del Mar literary agent.

“He’s able to present almost any kind of subject in a way that almost anyone at any level, whether they’re a child or an adult, can get something out of it--and, even if it’s a heavy subject, not go away feeling bad,” said Mary Stofflet, curator of the “Dr. Seuss From Then to Now” exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art in 1986.

And I’ll prove you YOU,” yelled the South-Going Zax,

“That I can stand here in the prairie of Prax

For fifty-nine years! For I live by a rule

That I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.

Never budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least!

Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east!

--”The Zax”

Children said simply that they liked his stories. Parents said they appreciated Geisel’s ability to engage even non-reading toddlers with his daydreams and whimsical digressions. Writers of children’s books acknowledged his mastery in capturing the exuberance of youth and crafting it into a literary genre.

“He set the tone for many of us,” said Olga Cossi, 70, a children’s fiction writer who lives in Coronado. “More than the actual influence on writing style, he set a standard of excellence that guided every writer. The level of plain old fun and sheer joy is something to be matched.”

Dr. Taras said he had used Geisel’s writings to treat psychological issues in children’s lives that can sometimes affect their physical condition.

“I was treating this little black girl recently who didn’t want to be black,” he said. “Only 10% of the kids in her school were black, and she was having problems dealing with it. I recommended that her mother teach her some black history--showing her the many great things that black people have done--but I also acquainted her with some of Dr. Seuss’ writings that deal with prejudice.”

When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts

Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,

They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.

They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.

--”The Sneetches”

Many valued Geisel’s use of language, and found that, unintentionally, it helped children learn.

Julia Croom, a kindergarten teacher at Dailard Elementary School in San Carlos, said she most appreciated “the fun that he had with language and the sounds of language. The pattern of ‘Green Eggs and Ham,’ for instance. The pattern he put in many books, of, say, ‘One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish,’ was marvelous. It was a marvelous pattern of language and predictable stories that a child could understand.”

“Those sounds are ones that children need to become effective readers. His work encouraged a child to want to read, because the stories were so much fun. The creatures were fantasy-oriented and were characters that all youngsters could have fun with and identify with.”

Seuss appealed to children’s simultaneous love and fear of anarchy, allowing them to explore those emotions from a safe distance, but always resolving the situation, said Peter Neumeyer, an authority on illustrated children’s books at San Diego State University. The Cat in the Hat may trash the house, but in the end, it was cleaned up before the adults arrived home.

“The adults are pretty much excluded, and children can let their imaginations go wild,” Neumeyer said. “He appeals to them with kind of wild drawing that perhaps would not pass their third-grade teacher.”

But Geisel’s greatest talent may have been the ability to retain a child’s original, wondrous perspective on life even at his advanced age, critics said.

“I think the very best children’s authors . . .retain some of their childhood,” Neumeyer said. “I used to write children’s books, but I can’t anymore. People our age get in ruts, and we don’t see things fresh.”

“Older people don’t have funny bones. They lose them for some reason,” Cossi added. “A writer of children’s books has no age at all. Like Dr. Seuss, we have to have funny bones that are always ready to be tickled. That, to me, is life.”

Times staff writer Michael Granberry contributed to this report.