Hello! Do You Like My Hat?

Do you remember your favorite childhood book? Mine was "Go, Dog. Go!" by P.D. Eastman. Thinking back, I had my parents read it to me so often that their eyes probably bled from staring at the dozens of brightly colored dogs romping through the pages.

My favorite part was a running "bit" between a pink Poodle and a yellow Hound. The Poodle would arrive on the scene wearing a frou-frou hat and after their initial greeting of "Hello!" would ask, "Do you like my hat?" and the Hound would say, "I do not." Then the book would continue with other dog antics.

Well, this mounting tension was almost more than my tiny little heart could take. The Poodle's hats grew more and more elaborate, until at the end of the book, she appears resplendent in a huge chapeau decorated with a flowerpot, mop, spider and pinwheel and the yellow Hound finally smiles and enthuses that he does indeed like her hat.

That "joke" has never gone stale. To this day, my Mother and I still ask each other once in awhile, "Do you like my hat?"

Oh yeah...go, dog. Go!