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A
lmost 50 years ago, in a
tiny town in England, a gastroenter-
ologist named Peter Cotton told his
children a bedtime story.
“I was trying to teach my chil-
dren how not to cross the road,
because what happened to Fred
the Snake was that he inevitably got squished by a car,”
explained Dr. Cotton, now a
resident of Mount Pleasant.
Fortunately, it all ended well for Fred; he gets taken to
the hospital and a very nice doctor looks after him and says
he needs some special thread that only comes from under
a rhinoceros. A character known as Jungle Jim retrieves the
thread and sends it to the hospital, and Fred is mended
and goes home happy.
Dr. Cotton’s children became quite fond of Fred, often
referring to him as “Fred Fred” after he got split in half.
Years later, when they started having children of their own,
they begged their father to revive the tale of Fred, and he
happily obliged. After a few updates and edits, the family
decided that this was a tale worth sharing with the world.
LocaL Physician Pens chiLdren’s Books
BedtimeStories
Brought toLife
By Samantha Sullivan
65
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www.ilovemountPleasant.com|
www.BestOfmountPleasant.comPhoto courtesy of Dr. Peter Cotton.