Roosevelt Scarred Him for Life
As a child, Geisel was a Boy Scout who sold U.S. war bonds. He was one of the 10 best bond sellers in his troop, so he and his whole family were invited to attend a special ceremony on May 2, 1918. Geisel was going to get a medal from former president Theodore Roosevelt. But the organizers accidentally gave Teddy only nine medals instead of 10, which meant that the supply ran out right before Geisel (who was even sitting on stage with the other boys).
Source: Seuss in Springfield
Roosevelt didn’t realize that he had been short one medal, and looked at Geisel and asked: “What is this little boy doing here?” But instead of explaining that there had been a mix-up, the Scoutmaster just whisked the humiliated Geisel off stage. The poor guy attributed his lifelong fear of public speaking to this incident.