"The Playground" by Ray Bradbury

Think back to some of your fondest memories of childhood.  Most of them involve playing with your friends.  Remember the carefree days at the playground?  But, what if the playground was a place of terror?  What if the other kids mistreated you?  Then you grow up and have a son.  Your wife dies.  And circumstances lead to your son being sent to the same playground you grew up at.  It is scary enough...but then you see a familiar child at the playground...and he calls you by your childhood nickname...

Bradbury Memories

When I read that Ray Bradbury had passed away, it struck home how the face of science fiction has changed since I first started reading it.  When I began reading in the genre, the big writers were Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein.  Ray Bradbury was in what I would consider the second tier.  Does that mean he was not as good of a writer as the big three?  No.  He did not make the transition to writing novels that they did.  Most of Bradbury’s output was in the short fiction category.  He was writing very little in the field by the 70s.  I remember reading and enjoying “The Martian Chronicles”, “S is for Space” and “R is for Rocket”.  Why did I read those but not the other collections/novels he wrote?  Because they were in the local library and the second factor was the titles.  I have always leaned towards stories that take place in space or on other planets.  Titles containing words like Martian, Space, and Rocket jumped out at me.  They instantly drew my attention.  That is one of the reasons I read the Winston series with their rocket ship logo.  When you are in junior high school and don’t know much about the field, you have to find something to narrow down the list of what you want to read.