I understand some of the people that post messages here are in contact with Mr. Bradbury on a somewhat frequent basis, however I thought it might be interesting for the rest of us to share our single or infrequent experiences of meeting Ray. As such, it would be nice to hear about some of the more interesting meetings of those that have met Ray many times as well!

In 1994 I was a senior in high school. I spent a large portion of every day as a library aid. One of the more interesting aspects of my duties was to help coordinate the visits of special speakers/artists etc. Towards the tail end of the year the librarian let me know that Ray would be coming to our school for a visit & that she & I would be running the whole thing. Now to digress a bit, I had spent several months prior DEVOURING "The Stories of Ray Bradbury". I was in the height of my burgeoning love of his work & there could not have been a more opportune time to meet him!

Needless to say, the one and only time I met Ray stands out as one of the most amazing & memorable experiences in my life & is an oft-told story! Ray talked about everything you would imagine he�d talk about (even though the 10 year-old memory of everything he said is a BIT hazy at this point). It was a great day that I will be forever grateful for.

[This message has been edited by Andrew (edited 08-07-2003).]

Andrew:

Hey! Where did all this wonderful stuff take place? What city, and what was the name of the school?

One of my most memorable times is 'after' Ray spoke at a library in a suburb of LA, San Pedro. We crammed into a Volkswagen station wagon style car, and drove down from the hills of San Pedro. Ray was in the front passenger seat. What was interesting about this event was that we were worried that one of the front wheels might fly off. The whole car was a bit shakey and seemed about ready to give us all one of those thrill rides you usually have to purchase a ticket to experience. I remember thinking that this was all crazy. But we all made it back safely...by the sheer 'grace' of God no less...

Boy....way to one-up me Nard! I certainly didn't have as intimate an experience with Ray as you did!

I grew up in a small town called Bishop in California. From what I understand, Ray has made at least three trips to Bishop. Once before I was in high school, once while I was there & once since I graduated. I remember hearing something about him really enjoying the area, thus the repeated trips to speak to students.

The school? None other than Bishop Union High School.

There were a couple pictures taken & published by the local paper while he was in town, one of which was with a large group of students that I managed to sneak into. Unfortunatley, the copy of the paper I had is long gone.

[This message has been edited by Andrew (edited 08-07-2003).]

Andrew:
Didn't intentionally mean to 'one-up-you'. There's tons of people that have one-upped-me, so to speak, ten thousand times.... I happened to be, for a few years of my life, in a place that experiences like the one I described were accessible. Assuredly, they were as important to me as blood.