Green eggs and ham day

It's Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2. He was born 108 years ago, amazingly. He is so ever-present in our schools and on our bookshelves and in television (Grinch) and in movies (The Lorax) that it's like he never died. I say, die already.

Of course I'm speaking metaphorically, because the good author actually died in 1991. But I am no fan of any of his 46 books, and really not a fan of Green Eggs and Ham or The Cat in the Hat.

I always got stressed out when Cat in the Hat was read to me. I was a nervous kid. Whenever anything was out of order or not going the way it was supposed to be, I got stressed. This didn't really show outwardly, but I was hospitalized at age 8 for headaches and stomachaches. And in The Cat in the Hat, everything goes wrong. An interloper arrives at the house while the kids are there alone. Bad! The house gets wrecked. Bad! The mom is due home any minute. Stress! The cat seems oblivious to this. By page 10 or so, the situation was unbearable for me.

One of the kids who was writing a response to the story wrote that, "The cat seemed nice at first. Then he turned into a bully. If it was me I would ask my mom to kick him out." I agree completely! That kid and I are two peas in a pod.

Green Eggs and Ham always seemed foolish to me. Just the premise, green eggs, was gross. It was obvious that green eggs should not be eaten. But then this creature goes to all this trouble to get the guy to try the eggs.  And all the scenes were so precipitous. They were always careening off the edge of somewhere. Ugh. Too much stress. Nope, Dr. Seuss was nonsensical and silly. Give me The Secret Garden any day.

I had a good time with the kids during Green Eggs and Ham day today though because they were having such a good time. Amazingly most of the kids loved the green eggs. They enjoyed the special readers who came to the classroom to read Dr Seuss stories to them. Tomorrow is pajama day, and they will love that too.

Needless to day I did not try the green eggs and declined the ham. But the grits, THOSE were great!