Mark Bloch, in a recent email:

One time Ray sent a message in a bottle. It had his address on it and some kid found it and wrote to Ray. Ray was so excited! He loved that kind of stuff. To him that was the absolute essence of what he was trying to do and what excited him about correspondence. But unfortunately the kid's mom wouldn't let him correspond with Ray and so Ray was very very disappointed. I'll never forget: his exact words to me on the phone were "AND HERE THIS KID HIT THE JACKPOT BUT..."

I always found it touching how much he cared and how disappointed he was and also how his perception of it was that this kid hit the jackpot. An all expenses paid correspondence with Ray Johnson—founder of the New York Correspondance School!!!! I just love that! And the kid did hit the jackpot, the poor bastid.