A Brush With a Mouse

“M-I-C-K-E-Y: He’s the Leader of the Brand” (July 23), on the campaign to revive the Mickey Mouse image, brought back the memories of growing up in Kaunas, a major city in prewar, independent Lithuania. My father was an automobile dealer selling, among other makes, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the U.S.-made Willys-Overland automobiles. Willys-Overland was later the original maker of the WWII Jeep.

From time to time an American representative would come to Eastern Europe to visit the dealerships there. I was just 7 or 8 years old when he came and brought me a present -- a Mickey Mouse toothbrush. It must have made a tremendous impression, because I still remember how happy, grateful and proud I was. I am quite sure that on that day I became the only kid in Lithuania to own a Mickey Mouse toothbrush, and I never forgot it.

Many decades later, in California, I went to a lot of trouble to find and buy similar toothbrushes for my own U.S.-born sons. I am afraid that they were not nearly as impressed as I was.

Si Frumkin

Studio City