Reflections of::::
The Bradbury Literary Walk
Green Town, Illinois (October 6, 2002)
(also known as Waukegan, Illinois )

It was after 2 PM... when we... (my wife Margaret, and my pet pooch, Peter)...arrived at the Bradbury Literary Walk. It had already started couple hours earlier...and little Tour Groups were seen everywhere, with a particular set of actors at different sites, performing brief expressions from scenes of Ray's stories, pertinent to the site one would visit.

Being sort of a Lone-Ranger Touring Person by this later hour, I decided to...well, start at the beginning like everyone else did, of course...at the old Carnegie Library Building.

It was built in 1902. There, several tables were set up, and things could be purchased, like T-shirts, and books, and posters. I soon signed in on a mailing list for future information, noting the strange premises around me with curiosity.

Oh, yes, this....this is where ...Ray as a young boy, would rush to after school, and run through aisles and aisles and rummage thru stacks and stacks of books, opening one book here, reading another there, smelling the inks, letting the aromas of papers and printed things carry his heart and emotions to the next page, the next shelf, the next aisle, until, BAM! he would fall in love with a particular verse...and particular passage, and let 'that' carry him to the next aisle, the next author, who carried him further along the way to the beauty of the poetry of words and expressions and thoughts and meanings, and...well...... well....ah....

Carnegie Library today is....well, gutted!

What a horrible word to express a near disappointment of how the 'Old Book Castle' has weathered life. The walls are all bare of even paint, and what paint there is, it is all shattered, and the floors are all scrapped and worn.

I took several pictures.

But in the midst of all this wreckage, a small group performed for onlookers. I believe it was something from Dandelion Wine, and I took a picture of them. Then I took a picture of someone else taking a picture of them.

As I walked back outside, the weathered marble entrance floor still was the same one with the same patterns in the marble, that the young Ray saw when he entered the building, some 70 plus years ago!!

I took a picture of that.

Now outside, it was different. Mind you, the weather was about 60 degrees, very sunny, very Autumnal. A brisk breeze swept in with the clear smell of the Lake, which is situated just a few blocks to the East.

Ahead, was a scattering of people on the "tour". As we walked to the next block, there on the corner a dozen people talking to the "proprietors" from... Something Wicked This Way Comes. There was the owner of the store that sold Tetley's Cigars, who took a ride on Mr. Dark's 'ferris wheel' one day and never came back the same....and the fellow with one arm and one leg who dreamt of Football days long ago...(I took a picture of him throwing a football)...and from Dandelion Wine, there was Sanderson's Shoe Emporium, with a sampling of shoes on the sidewalk. (I took a picture them all...)

I talked with each person, and the fellow at the storied barber shop, well, his real name was John Blount, and he asked me to say "Hello" to Ray. I took his picture.

Further down the street, we passed several other sites, but I was hurrying towards St. James Street, and Ray's old house.

I noticed that the church by The Ravine is torn down. That was strange! It seemed a perfectly good church last I saw it years ago.

Took another picture of some happy people going the other way. They posed for the picture. Around the corner, I found about 5 or 6 people trying to locate Ray's house. I was a little befuddled myself. Things looked differently. I just couldn't see where it was until....Well, there it was, right by Washington Street, but...

I had gotten a letter from Ray the day before, asking me to give his old house a "pat". But it wasn't the same house I remember on the last visit, some 20 years plus ago. It was nearly bewildering to see it all now. There, his old house, next to his other family member's house, is now all fenced in, and painted a most uncomfortable color. Off hand, I forgot who exactly lived next door to his parents. Twas uncle, or grandfather, or both?? Well, their particular house...has the yard half asphalted with "tar", and the little driveway behind it holds an ancient and embattled tractor. 'IN' the yard, sits a car, also embattled. And 'ON' this car sits a youngish Mexican fellow (or shall I say "reclining")... on the hood of that car, with his back supported by the windshield. There, he relaxed, drinking some 'elixir' from a brown bag wrapped container. All the while he is looking at the crowds going by and people taking pictures of his house. I personally don' t think he had a clue.

Next door, at Ray's parents old house, it seemed like everyone was hiding indoors, afraid to show their faces even at the windows. You really had to stop and pray that you would retrieve some of the magic of the day's he wrote about, as you stared at the scene before you. But.....

But...across the street, right across the street of Ray's old house....a different scene, a different story. There, a dozen or more people, watching 3 or 4 lads performing a scene from Dandelion Wine. Somebody portrayed a young Ray discovering the magic of creating Dandelion Wine from ...Dandelions ! ! Here, tiny pieces of yellow paper were tossed on the green grass to represent "dandelions". I took a picture of this.

Afterwards, we took off down the street to see Ray Bradbury Park. It is a small, but practical area, right next to The Ravine. You walk into the small park, and it slopes down to an area called Dandelion Trail, where you walk down, down a Wood Bridge to the bottom of The Ravine... There, 3 young girls portrayed a scene from Dandelion Wine, specifically "The Lonely One." Here was Lavinia and Helen and Francine. I took a picture.

We managed to walk up the other side of The Ravine, with the old, original steps, now crumbling, held together with years of cement being added to the crumbling stairs by those perhaps knowing, perhaps not knowing what they were attempting to perserve. Those stairs still remind me of the spine of some... magnificent creature, having rested on this very area for 10 million years, and 'recently' unearthed by winds and the feet of many travelers.

Some kid at the top of the steps finally decided to throw a small stone at us. I guess no one was paying attention to him. When we got up to the top, my wife tried to get him to pet our dog, Peter. That got his attention a little, but soon, his Mom was calling him...and he had to go. Mothers, all these years later, still call their kids home.... I guess they always have, always will.

We visited briefly a couple other places, but by then, we decided it was time to head back. It was almost 4 o'clock by then, the time the tour was to end anyway

I say, if you totalled everyone up that afternoon, my guess, is that 2, maybe 3 hundred people showed up at various times.

We got back into the car, and decided to head down a main street back into Chicago, instead of the expressway. It's called Sheridan Road. It's a funny street, that can get you lost, tho. It goes straight for awhile, then makes a 90 degree turn, seems like another...then turns again for 5 or 6 blocks, then goes straight again, only to curve into another street that you don't want to go down, because you were supposed to turn left a hundred feet before that... Keeps your attention. And it's very scenic. It eventually empties into Lake Shore Drive, heading South into downtown Chicago and beyond.

But along this way, we encountered a "Great Storm", almost out of nowhere. The skies turned dark grey, the winds came up out of nothing, blowing the biggest swarms of colored leaves, while the rain came down in waves. Everything howled. It was like being on the best ride at 'Bradburyland'. All around, the grandest mansions imaginable....turn of the century picture book stuff, and the air very chilled. All around the scenery spoke of ghosts and goblins, and things far, far away in time and straight out of story books made suddenly very alive and real. It very much felt like ...Ray's Magical Mystical Finale ...on an afternoon well spent..



[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 10-07-2002).]

Nard, I couldn't open your earlier thread on my machine at all. On another machine, it opened but was blank! If you can put the "real" posting here, I'll delete the "phantom" one after the real one appears. I'm very interested in your impressions, who else was on the walk, and whether anyone got good pictures!
P. S. So, I lied. I can't delete a thread I can't open. It will simply have to remain an eternal enigma.

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 10-08-2002).]

Pictures? Yay!

Pete

NK:
Would you say the Waukegan Chamber of Commerce has done much (or enough) to preserve, restore, or reconstruct the neighborhood as a "special historical" site? It sounds as if, maybe, they are missing the real draw power of RB's childhood haunts!

Thanks for your comments of the walk. Nice images! Yes, "Bradburyland" or "Bradbury's Green Town!"

Nice images indeed. (But not as good as posting pictures, no? What're the chances. . .?)I felt like I was right beside you taking the walk. Thrilling.

Pete

Very descriptive. I'm jealous (but in a positive way.) If you ever post the pictures on a web site, I hope you'll remember to send us there, so we can see the sites you saw!)

Hey!!

Thanks for all your comments....

If anyone out there knows how to post pictures, with a link to this Bradbury site, let me know. I'll have about a dozen pictures to post.

fjpalumbo:::: Pertaining to your comments about the Chamber of Commerce's hand in Preservation of Bradbury sites, well...

....This particular Literary Walk was for the raising of funds to rebuild the Carnegie Library,. They hope to use it as a Children's Museum. (They got a long ways to go) I don't think anything else is being done currently.

That reminds me of a particular house on the North Side of Chicago, on Harding Avenue. It is where, I understand, Walt Disney was born and raised, and there, created Mickey Mouse. The present owner tried selling it to Disney not that long ago....but..."No thanks!" from Disney People. So she rents it out. That's how it goes sometimes.

PS:: Welcome back ...to health, Mr. Dark !

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 10-08-2002).]

At times like this, I wish I had money. I would love to buy and restore/preserve both the Bradbury and Disney homes. Two masters of the imagination.

Don Henley has taken ownership of re-buying and preserving as much of Walden Pond as possible for Thoreau's legacy . . . it would be great to see someone do the same for these two homes.

Mr. Dark::::

I was living next door to Yorba Linda, California, near ol' Richard Nixon's boyhood home... during the time several people were renting that little house. It was really just a four room shack, a small wooden, white painted structure...on a large parcel of land (for the area). A dog tied to a tree, because there was no fence, completed the quaint picture.

A few times I'd walk right up to that little house and think...'Gee! This is where Nixon was born and raised !' And the traffic on Yorba Linda Boulevard would just go by. I am sure hardly anyone ever noticed anything particular about this little place in the shadows of this big world.

Nixon's home in San Clemente, California, also known as the West Coast White House ...had been seriously considered as the site for the Presidential Library. Well, that wasn't to be. For the city by the ocean ultimately turned down the idea because of ...Watergate!

But then Nixon's birthplace, Yorba Linda, stepped in and...accepted the offer !

And all of a sudden...that little shack was emptied of people and one dog, a fence was thrown up all around the quiet property...and in a matter of a few months, the little turn of a century wooden house... was totally restored ...to its Original Condition. Everything was literally replaced or meticulously restored ...outside AND inside. And then, of course, there was this matter of a 20 million dollar Library built encompassing the house...with flower gardens, and walkways, magnificent landscaping everywhere. Even both Richard Nixon and his wife are buried in the garden on the property, right by his boyhood home.

So what does this mean?

Well...

Ray's stories are set in a nearly Mythical City... a small town that exists where ...the greatest joys of living and grand expectations were experienced. They inspire in such marvelous fashion ...that this experience is applicable to your very own life and circumstances.

Green Town is built in the heart of any true reader, and believer. I don't think you can truly replace his boyhood home to what it was...for then you would have to replace Grandfather...and Uncles, and Aunt Neva...on the porch of summer evenings at his house...and truly have the ears to hear his Mother calling him.

My! With the Spirit and Love that Ray exudes...you can have that in your own life...and there will evoke out of you...a sense of the best that Green Town ever had to offer. It's there, all entwined in his prose, invisible...yet it washes us for such is his Grand Gift from ...God!

So, taking a "cue" from the last scene of Fahrenheit 451, we carry..."Green Town" with us, deep inside, and impart it one to another.... I don't think a restored house...however meticulous, would ever do that sufficiently.....



[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 10-11-2002).]

Mr. Dark::::

Hope you are up and walking...or really soon....

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 10-11-2002).]

NK has the right idea. 'Green Town' is like Jimmy Buffett's 'Margaritaville'. It exists wherever we fans are. We've ALL grown up with Doug, Tom, Grandma & Grampa, sneakers and The Happiness Machine,- the whole lovely melange. As Snow mentioned in another thread, we can evoke it, consciosly or not, with new sneakers or the smell of cloves, chickens baking, or the far-off, long-drawn wail of the train. Sometimes I feel myself smiling, and I wonder why; then I remember some little thing that has happened to carry me, all unknowing, back into Dandelion Country.

Get Well Soon, Mr. Dark.

Live Forever, Ray Bradbury!

Sorry: "consciously"

Very eloquent, NK.

I am hobbling w/o crutches -- an embarrassment to manhood, at this point. My kids wince with me as I try to hobble along, but I can see them trying not to laugh. Fortunately, there are hopes for a full recovery. I have greatly appreciated the good wishes in emails and in various postings on the Bradbury site. They have cheered and encouraged me through a pretty rough period.

Although it would be nice to see the homes restored (physically), your points are valid. What happens as a result of Bradbury's ideas is that we come alive in new ways in our minds, hearts, and imaginations. That is where the true magic is. If I never saw Bradbury's home (this is not to say I wouldn't like to see it!), what matters is that back in 9th grade (a few years back), I read Farenheit 451 and suddenly realized that ideas mattered. Bradbury brought that alive to me. When I followed up with Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes, I was a new being. The conversion was of a religious nature. I was a non-reader and, almost magically, came alive to the written word. It would not be an exagerration to say that my life changed and was never the same again.

Reading Bradbury still makes me come alive.

You're also right in that the house is less important than the "family" he had. As I read more about him, and as I read more interviews with him, I realize that much of who he is as a person and a writer is because of his family -- both real and mythical!

So I stand corrected and enlightened. This is why I want this site to continue to engage in "real" discussion and not prattle on in putrid trivia. Many of you have stuff to say that helps me "get" Bradbury's stuff better.

The Disney Company's behavior is outrageous, though not surprising considering these are the same folks who wanted to build a theme park on a Civil War battlefield in Virginia. It's especially scandalous in light of all their hype concerning Walt's 100th birthday. Does anyone have an address where we can bombard the Disney Company with demands to redeem themselves from this disgrace? They ought to buy up and restore every site significant to his life and work--just as Henry Ford did for Thomas Edison. The two Bradbury homes deserve the same respect--so far, I guess we should be glad he even got the park! Look at the reverence accorded the Lincoln cabin--a blatant fake. Abraham Lincoln was not, as in the old student blooper, born in a log cabin constructed by his own hands--he was born in a log cabin constructed some 30 years after his death! Speaking of the Civil War, a few years back I was privileged to visit the home of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the general whose conduct during the Battle of Gettysburg was so instrumental in turning the tide of that war and in our country becoming what it is today. For years, his home was neglected, and, as the guide said, "the good news is they did nothing and the bad news is they did nothing." When I went, they had poured $100,000.00 into the house, which "was all structural." (That's right--it was a dump.) It was not allowed to deteriorate so far, though, as to be unable to be restored to its original condition. It was just about to be torn down and replaced with a fast food place--which gives an idea of the esteem which some Americans accord their country's heroes. (So, my post begins and ends with the American Civil War--a circle completes itself.)

The sad cliche still fits once we forget our past we are bound to repeat it. It seems we will never learn from Lincolns Gettysburg address, but then again what the heck pass the frys. Ray has preserved the choice slice of Americana, and put it in print. You have that in literary amber, as long as you can check out a copy of his work from a library or cherish a worn personal book you
own the attic, the field, the future, the human heart. My praise goes to the gift of his written record that is fresh, the thing at the top of the stairs will always be there, a fond soft whisper of kitten paws, the tap of his typewriter have left a monument or legacy all thier own. I will probably never see with my physical eyes Waukegan, Illinous, but I have smelt Green town, I have flown, hopped, run, and misted with the Family. Martians have landed in my backyard, and Mushrooms have grown in my basement. I have sent my copy of the video the Halloween Tree with my Daughter to school
along with donating 5 collected dupes of paperbacks to her middleschool. I love how he opened my eyes to just plain reading. All in All he needs more recognition for his innovation, and a few more people should listen. OK I'm finished, I have learned from him over the years more in perspective,
and human nature than I would care to admit. He does need recoginition for his Home.