I was born in the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, area on September 30, 1962 --- I told Ray I was born on the final day of September so I wouldn't miss a day of October. I arrived the same year SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES was released, and it remains my all-time favorite novel. I still live in the Shoals, where I write for one of the New York Times regional newspapers (as well as the NYT national wire service), produce and direct Bradbury plays through my Pillar of Fire Productions Co. (my most recent was my own stage adaptation of THE MAN UPSTAIRS), and serve as associate editor of the L.A.-based CULT MOVIES magazine. My recent interview with the original Scream Queen, Fay Wray, will be the cover story for their next issue.

Born in Chicago, Illinois.
And recently I can say honestly that I am finally at about 22 years old mentally. (When I reached 21, THAT was milestone.)

Lived in Los Angeles area (Fullerton, CA. mostly) for about 15 years plus a couple months, and about 1 year in San Francisco. All the remainder of the time... in Chicago.

Discovered and drawn to Ray Bradbury as just a name on some magazine cover way before reading any of his stories...about 5th grade thereabouts...

Born October 1st 1960.... Raised in Utah county North of Lehi. Discovered Ray at 11 while reading the Illustrated Man on a cliff overlooking Hebgen Lake in Montana. Have been collecting his writings since 12th Birthday. Currently living in Ogden, Ut.
Living/employed in Stewart Library, Weber State University, Interlibrary Loan/Media/Reserve. Have a love of literature that has made me a reading junky,
just continuing 14 years at Stewart. Who ever cannot understand Bradbury does not have a heart, nor inkling of the untimely soul with which Ray writes. I pity the person who cannot comprehend his work...
No offence intended, but his work is without time, and will last as long as space.
uncle

I am male, was born in western Pennsylvania, at the end of the month of the mid-century mark. While I was a young sailor, I read and saw F451. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Books have been my best friend since I was four. I am now teaching language arts (we used to call it English Literature) at a middle school. Funny how the kids in the class "get it" although my goal is to make them lifelong readers and learners, Bradbury has opened their eyes about writing and reading. I have some very able young writers, and expect someday to see some of their names on book covers. I don't think that the love of literature has anything to do with age or gender. After all, I think that Clarisse and her family enjoyed the "primitive" writing of Ray. This last gives me an idea to use in class. Thanks!!!

Born Dec. 5th, 1958. Born and raised in Western Minnesota. First exposed to Ray through a classroom reading of "The Martian Chronicles" in 10th grade. I most closely identify with "Something Wicked This Way Comes" because so many of the elements described in the book...the county fair, summer storms gathering across the open fields, the old library, the old houses,etc...were "part and parcel" of the town and area that I grew up in. So, as you can tell, comprehension was never an issue.

Wow, I feel incredibly young. Born 1986, Manitoba, Canada. Bradbury's stuff has molded me as a person and influenced my filmmaking and writing to an incredible degree. My favorites are F451, From the Dust Returned, and A Graveyard for Lunatics. The latter I just finished.

nerdboy,
Filmmaking and writing, huh?
Sounds like me! What kind of stuff are you doing? I'd love to hear about it!

Born in 1972 in St. Louis.
Live in Southern Illinois.

Critics - What do they know?

Born Sept. 1966 in Anaheim, Ca.
Fled the "Tragic Kingdom" for Sonoma, Ca. in Sept. 1983
21st B-Day Sept. 1987-back to the big city, Oakland Ca.
Left Oak-Town for Sac-Town to by a house in Sept. 1989 missed World Series Earth Quake by a month.
Still live in Sacramento, Ex-Spouse has the house.

No problem with R.B.
My kids(9 and 11)really didn't "get" FH-451, but loved ALL SUMMER IN A DAY and THE VELDT.

I was in the World Series quake. I was in San Jose at the time. I was on the phone with a customer in San Francisco and felt the shaking start. I asked if he felt it, and he said no, then said, yea, we're getting it now! It was a real shaker where I was. A large ceiling tile fell on me and I hid under my desk until it was over. I stayed on the phone with the guy throughout. It took me over two hours to get home when it normally took about 25 minutes. I was nervous as crap when I got stuck on bridges (twice going home) becuase had heard the reports of the collaped section of the Bay Bridge and the overpasses. Bummer of a quake.

I was also in the Symar and Whittier quakes down south. I've had very "good" luck this way!

Both earthquakes, WOW. In Texas have you been present during any twisters or floods? Do these things follow you around, or what?

My daughter saw a tornado from our back porch. I was at work. A large portion of our fence was sheared off at ground level by wind. I think it was a small twister because of the noise, but my daughter insists it was wind shear or a downburst. In either case, the posts were sheared off level with the ground like they'd been cut with a hot knife.

Mr. Dark...

Utica, Illinois, where the recent twister(s) were last couple weeks, is a mere 70 plus miles from Chicago. But there was a twister in Chicago, years back, where it lifted my sister's car and moved it over a few feet...

They don't call it the Windy City for nothing.

I never could figure how you folks endured shaking ground and buildings or funnels shaping close in the distance, ready to take you off to Oz!

Here, autumns right out of RB's pages (trees ablaze with color, migrating birds, pumpkins ripened and lying ready for the knife, and crisp nights carrying the smell of wood burning in stoves and fireplaces.

However, a typical winter for far northern NY State (minutes s. of the St. Lawrence River and just barely e. of the Adirondack Mts.) has no lack of late October to early April "snow!"

Try this: Ice storms that put out the lights for 3 weeks at a time, winds at 40mph bringing "chill factors" of -50F, piles of the white stuff sometimes 2-3 feet at a time, followed the next day with a mere additional 12-18", quiet nights that dip to -30F and no wind at all, and weeks that stay below zero or hover in the single digits tempting us with a hope of a "warm spell" - maybe in the teens.

But then early spring arrives, fields 10 acres wide are painted brilliant yellow with dandelions, front and side lawns deep purple with lilac bushes, and grass as green and lush as an over down 60's shag rug (what!?).

Summers hot, lakes cold-deep-clear, and lots of open spaces for kids, kites, pick up baseball games, and long country-road runs. Today, 80F! Maybe, just maybe....winter is over! You think?

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 05-14-2004).]