Well, really not an excess ...but a number of Photos of Ray at different times....PLUS:::: Lots and Lots of Bonus Stuff

click on:::: http://www.raybradburyonline.com/imagegallery.htm



[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 09-30-2002).]

Wow, thanks for posting that, Nard! I had no idea there was a "Ray Bradbury Park," or any permanent or official acknowledgement, of his contribution in that area! I know he attended some sort of dedication ceremony on Halloween of 1984; perhaps it was for that. The excellent letters at the link lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/kleggett/ eyewitness_letters.htm by students who took a "Ray Bradbury Walk" two years ago update the area to the year 2000. I will add: I never did find that church, though I looked for it. Didn't have the book in hand and it either didn't appear on my map, or I missed it. Glad the wooden bridge is still there! I think I posted on another thread how the city was going to put a horrible concrete or metal structure in place of the original old bridge, now long gone. A Bradbury fan who is a carpenter rushed down and built the wooden bridge while they were still talking. It was brand new when I saw it in 1984, by which I mean the wood hadn't even weathered yet. He really caught it for building on city property, but it was well worth it. Personally I think the whole area should be a protected Historic District and a designated National Treasure. By the way, I think 113 steps is meant to be the total number of steps to cross from one side of the ravine to the other. I counted the steep stone steps going up the bank at 57. Somehow these kids counted 60. They hit one or two attractions I missed, but my getting to see the lake shore made up for the whole thing! I HAD to see the "real place," not only because the stories had such impact on me, but to see how much of it was really the place that was all that special, and how much the writer. I can truthfully report the ravine is exactly as Bradbury describes. He did not exaggerate in any particular, just gave an especially apt description. The houses, as noted in these letters, were either exaggerated in the stories, or have since been remodeled. The porches on his house are definitely gone, but the stained glass windows at the grandparents' house are there. The only thing actually better than I expected was the lake. It was interesting to see how Bradbury brightened things in such an ordinary place as Waukegan. I am currently reading "Look Homeward, Angel," by Thomas Wolfe, and am finding more influence by him on Bradbury's style than any other author I have read so far, BUT it is very interesting to note how Bradbury's stories are so colored by nostalgia. "Look Homeward, Angel" is set in a resort town in mountains so lovely people would come from several states away for vacation--the surrounding countryside is beautifully evoked, yet the town comes across as a rather discouraging, tacky little place where no one would bother to vacation. Waukegan, on the other hand, a place that probably very few in real life choose as a vacation spot, is so glowing in the stories one would expect a near paradise. Just goes to show some of what the author/observer brings to his surroundings.

Ah, sometime I REALLY want to go to Waukegan and see the ravine and the lake for myself. Lucky you! Is this the same lake featured in "The Trolley"? If so, I'd love to see it...That's one of his most beautiful stories, in my opinion, and the imagery is second-to-none.

The Carnegie Library in Waukegan was also recently renamed in Bradbury's honor (or at least part of it...I can't recall for certain). That was in 1997 or '98.

I also love Thomas Wolfe...Fitting, that Ray B. should bring him back to life and set him on Mars.

-Greg

The pictures were, of course, wonderful but, um, all that talk about the ravine and lakeshore etc? Was that supposed to be on the pictures site? Because I didn't find them. And I was unable to make the link work for the letters from the kids from the Walk in 2000. What gives?

Thanks for posting. I went out and downloaded a bunch of the pictures. I didn't follow the other links, yet; but the photos were worth the link posting.

pterran::::::::

Go to the very top, and there is this black bar with reversed (white) lettering. It says things like: Top Biography Bibliography, etc. Click on that, more stuff.

And of course, keep scrolling past the photos, and ....more stuff.....

What fun to look at all the photos. Thanks.
Dandelion, glad you're reading Look Homeward Angel. It has long been one of my favourites. The short story of Ray Bradbury's where Thomas Wolfe is brought back to life to write another story is great.

Does anyone know where I could find the Playboy interview online? Also, was there an article in People Magazine to go with the photo that was posted?

Nard,

Okay, I admit, I'm a doofus. I'm still not finding pictures of the ravine or the lake. If they aren't there, they aren't there but wouldn't it be nice to have links to photographs of these places. If I'm just too computer illiterate to find these links at the above site, by all means tell me. But, by all means, as well, tell it to me s-l-o-w-l-y so I can view these pictures of the sites of some of Ray's finest stories.

Thanks a bunch.

Pete

[This message has been edited by pterran (edited 10-01-2002).]

Pete, it's the same lake because there's only room for one. Lake Michigan. It's HUGE! I guess I expected some scummy little pond you could see across, and arrived to a vast beautiful shore where you couldn't see the other side. I did find a church on my trip, but it was the Baptist, I'm pretty sure--Ray's old church in a new building. The old building houses a different church. That's the one Ray attended and the one in the story, the one I couldn't find. The pictures aren't on the site listed, just one of Ray with the Park sign, which started me off about my trip. There is also a Hinkston Park in Waukegan named after relatives of Ray's. Sometime I might set up a website with my Waukegan map and pictures and then post a link to it here. If someone can post a better link to the student letters, they really are good. Is it breaking some law to copy and paste them here?

Dandelion:

Lake Michigan is indeed large.

If you stand downtown Chicago, and look directly across the lake, that's nearly 60 miles, and you can see Michigan City, Indiana. But the long part of the lake, looking Northeast, is somewhere around 265 miles wide. Yep, no pond. The song, 'The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald' with the loss of so many lives, was on Lake Michigan. The ship was 800 feet long. But the waves picked it up on one end, and the other end, and the ship broke in the middle. The storms on the Lake can be terrible.

Last time I visited the Church that Ray went to in Waukegan, was late 70's. It was there, then. It is just down and across the street from the Church that you find the 'Ravine'

Nard:

I don't mean to be a nit-picker but I believe the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior (please see: http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmundindex.html )

I grew up in the Great Lakes area (Lake Erie) and they are indeed very large (standing on the shore of any of them is very similiar to the ocean- except no salt).

Dandelion:

I read, with interest, your remarks about Waukegan (aka Green Town), and very much hope to see it someday.

You mention that you were surprised that the place seemed ordinary and expected a paradise based upon Mr. Bradbury's
descriptions.

What really drew me to "Dandelion Wine" was how emotionaly Mr. Bradbury described his hometown. It stirred within me the feelings I have for my small hometown in Ohio. I was amazed when I realized (I was 12 at the time) that there were other people out there that lived / live in such "ordinary" places, yet see them as their own amazing, private paradise.

dlowell_rb

Well, there goes another myth I believed for all these years, pertaining to where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.

Thanks. That was no nit pick. That's like saying Greentown, Illinois is just south of Boston.

Thanks!

((ps)):::Hey! Have you ever heard of Kinsman, Ohio? Must be really small place, 'cause I never find anyone from Ohio who knows where it is. Two of Ray's "teachers" while he was young, lived there: Leigh Brackett, who wrote a lot of movies, and late in life wrote the screenplay for Empire Strikes Back . She died a week later ((which is why George Lucas' name is also on the credits...he had to tie up loose ends of the screenplay)); and Ed Hamilton, her husband, one of the early giants of Science Fiction.

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 10-01-2002).]

First of all, it was October, a rare month... for Mr. Dark.

To all of you who have conversed with Mr. Dark, he will not be able to actively participate on the message boards this week, due to being admitted to the hospital today with complications from a knee infection. PLEASE keep him in your thoughts and prayers and flood his email with well wishes! :-)

With your thoughts and well wishes he hopes to have a speedy return to this intellectual realm!

Dandelion,

Thanks for the clarification. As for posting your pictures of Waukegan, what a great idea! It'd be a terrifica way for those of us who haven't been fortunate enough to visit to actually see some of the sights. (I won't be disappointed, I'm sure.) I can't tell you the thrill I got when friends who'd visited Chicago came back with photographs and postcards of Hemingway's (another author obsession of mine) childhood home.

What's everyone else think? (About the Waukegan pictures, not about Hemingway!)

Pete

I'd love to see them - If at all possible! I've always wondered how they appear now compared to the pictures I have of them in my mind's eye.

Best,
Greg