Hello all.

For decades now, I've tried to find the name of an old Ray Bradbury story. Every once in a while, I'll stop into a bookstore and try to find it in one of Ray's books.

The story is about a guy who made a pact with several of his friends when they were young. The man is now much older and the day they had all agreed to meet is about to take place. ( believe it was twenty years after they made the original pact.

I think that they were going to meet under an oak tree or something like that.

The man had eagerly anticipated seeing his old friends again for many many years. He wondered what they would look like and how they had changed. He also wondered what they would think of him.

He show up at the meeting and is horribly disillusioned when he finds that none of the others bothered to show up.

I always thought that this story hinted at some deep truths about human nature and have always wanted to re-read it.

Does anyone remember the story I'm talking about?

Thanks for your help.

Ron

The story you are looking for is "First Day." It appears in Ray's collection, ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD.

This is a fairly recent story isn't it? I wonder if seeker is thinking of another one, as he describes the one he's looking for as "old". I think it ends differently too, though I'll have to read it again...

http://www.raybradbury.com/books/one_for_road.html

Give this a look see!
As per Richard's lead. By the way, it was in the site's attic of excerpts. Pretty good. I thought it was a more recent rather than really old, a la 50-80's.

Thanks for all of the quick responses. This board is great.

I looked at the links that were provided for "First Day" and read the excerpt.

While it was in some ways eerily like the story I asked about, I don't think it was the same one.

From my recollection, the other members never show up at the end of the story whereas in "First Day" they apparently do (the excerpt I read did not actually have the ending but some reviews of the story that I was able to find said that the others do show up).

Also, I don't know if "First Day" is one of the new stories included in "One More for the Road" or whether it was a reprint. If it was one of the new stories it came out in 2002. The story I was referring to came out at the latest before 1986-88 (when I read it) although I'm pretty sure it was written well before that.

I am going to buy "One more for the Road" tonight to check on it for sure but I'm almost certain that "First Day" is not the story I'm looking for. Either way, I'm sure I'll find some more great Bradbury stories in there.

Does anyone else have any ideas of what story I might be looking for?

Thanks!

Ron

Ya see? Whaddid I tellya?