Ted's father, who worked in the family brewery business, was the disciplinarian. He accomplished this without a loud voice or a hard hand, using the power of ignoring the offender as punishment. The family lived in a well-to-do section of Springfield, Massachusetts, that provided Ted with his own bedroom from which he could see a house the neighborhood children believed haunted, and hear the quiet cacophony of the nearby zoo. All of these provided grist for Ted's imagination. The family added to the grist, as Ted's father and other male relatives often planned outrageous practical jokes to play on people. However, the jokes never got beyond the planning stage.
When he was very young, his mother gave him a brown, stuffed dog, unremarkable except for its power, throughout his life, to comfort him and evoke the security and love of his childhood days. Ted delighted in the world around him - trolleys and horse-drawn carriages, bicycles and ice wagons, delivery vans and yipping dogs, gas lights and the power to wiggle ones ears, neighbors and names - especially the given name of one friend, Norval. He loved the ritual of his mother's Episcopal church, and anything that rhymed. He learned the books of the Old Testament in rhyme, but had to insert a word of his own here or there, to perfect the rhyme or rhythm. If his own added words did not fit the meaning of the passage, that was not a problem as long as the cadence or sound was perfected - an early tolerance of the gibberish that later made him famous.
Mr. Geisel was on the Springfield park board, and frequently took the family to the Springfield zoo in the park. Ted always took a paper and pencil along, and began sketching some of the more fascinating animals. His drawings were even more fascinating as he replaced fur with feathers and exaggerated eye-catching features of the animal. He devotedly read the comics and was especially drawn to the zany Krazy Kat, drawn by George Herriman, which roused Ted's already prolific imagination.
