CHECK . . . CHECKMATE Ray Bradbury
When I was tiny, we’d watch movies at the Drive-in Theatre. We’d go early, while it was still light, to get the best spot. Not too far from the snack bar and bathrooms.
Giant Popcorn, extra butter and salt, a coke for Mom, a thermos of something for Dad, a baggie of home-packed candies for us kids.
My brother and I, in our jammies, loved playing on the playground—with one eye on the cartoons barely visible in the dusk.
Our parents picked the movies. They did not expect us to watch the movies. (After all, in the summer it didn’t get dark until way past our bedtimes.) They expected we’d last through the previews, and the cartoons (drive-in movies always started with a cartoon or two.) That’s why we went to the drive-in in our jammies. Nighty-night kiddos.
Hello “Illustrated Man.”
Hello memories seared into my brain. (Maybe the one time I didn’t fall immediately asleep.). Dang it was freaky.
Hello Ray Bradbury!
Ray Bradbury published more than 30 books and 600 short stories in his lifetime, Illustrated Man being one; Fahrenheit 451 being most banned . (He passed in 2012). Even now his books are edgy, funny, timely, infinitely readable and relatable.
And get this: Ray Bradbury, NEVER WORKED A DAY IN HIS LIFE!
That Inspires Me! (read on)
"I’ve never worked a day in my life. I’ve never worked a day in my life. The joy of writing has propelled me from day to day and year to year. I want you to envy me, my joy. Get out of here tonight and say: ‘Am I being joyful?’ And if you’ve got a writer’s block, you can cure it this evening by stopping whatever you’re writing and doing something else. You picked the wrong subject.” — Ray Bradbury at The Sixth Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, 2001
“I want you to envy me, my joy. ”
