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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

30 Years Ago

Discussion in 'Archive: Santa Cruz, CA' started by DarkLordSid, Apr 27, 2007.

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  1. DarkLordSid

    DarkLordSid Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 3, 2004
    Well since "Wars Stories" unstickified (insert unhappy face here), guess I'll have to start a new one.

    THIRTY YEARS AGO:

    I was just finishing off my sophmore year in high school. Didn't have my first car yet, a battered aging Chevy Impala. I managed to see Star Wars by riding the bus across town to the new Citadel mall in Colorado Springs. It was showing on a tiny screen in the "Mall Theater", a novelty at that time. Sure, I'd seen an ad or two about the film and wasn't really that interested. The only pic I saw in the paper was of what looked like a guy in armor somewhat between a german soldier and a samuri. I was into hard Sci Fi and the review tore it up one side and down the other for being completely inaccurate, improbable, and just plain silly. "They make robots which can talk and think, but can't manage to get a computer to run the ship's weapons". I agreed, how dare they call it Sci Fi when there was no science involved? Noise in space? Ppppffft.

    So I didn't expect much standing in line, was there mostly because friends had told me that I had no idea what I was missing, and that if I didn't see it I'd be a fool as it was something really unique.

    They were right.

    Within a short span of time I had the dual record set, the program, lobby cards, magazines, AMC model kits, posters, flashlight "Sabers", etc. Everything I could get my hands on (except for the figures, that came later).

    I was a leeeeetle hooked I guess.
     
  2. Tev_Torbek

    Tev_Torbek Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 19, 2004
    I was 7yrs old and my sister not even a year yet. I remember going over to the Toys-R-Us in San Jose, CA off of Blossom Hill Rd and Alamden Expressway. The had people dressed up as Vader, 3po, R-2, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca. I saw the movie over at the Century theaters next to the Winchester Mystery House.

    Sid, I don't think you'd recognize Springs anymore.
     
  3. Jedi-Loreen

    Jedi-Loreen Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2002
    I was about to graduate from high school in '77.

    Seeing the trailers for "Star Wars", I thought it looked like it was going to be lame.

    Then I decided to buy the Novelization of the screen play and as soon as I started reading it, I was hooked.

    Just like most people, seeing that Star Destroyer come on screen overhead amazed me.

    I was a bit disappointed that they'd cut out some of the scenes, like Luke watching the first space battle from the ground, and his interaction with Biggs in Anchorhead, but all in all, I thought the movie was great.

    I couldn't wait for the next one to come out.
     
  4. Master--Kenobi

    Master--Kenobi Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 8, 2003
    Ummm 21 here when it came out. Second in line at the Fox Theater in Visalia to see it (some little kid had spot #1) at the very first 1:00 p.m. showing on opening day. Not a clue what the movie was about, hadn't even seen the trailer. Just a very small black and white pic of a "200 year old Wookiee" in the local paper. But somehow, knew I had to go see it. Fell in love with the film when the Blockaide Runner went over head, was stunned when the Star Destroyer passed by afterwards..and then...

    Complete and Total True Love... The Millennium Falcon. The most beautiful ship I had ever laid eyes on. (However, the only other movie ship that has stolen my heart in an equal amount to the Falcon.. is The Black Pearl! Guess I have something for ships that seem to be in need of a little TLC.)

    I was with the California Shakespearean Festival at the time (serving my apprenticeship) and we were asked to come back and do a "live improve performance" for the theater. Costumes were thrown togeather...(another long story there ..but a fun one)...and a continuing love for the film, characters, and trilogy - make that the trilogies...was born.

    :)
     
  5. Kai_Vandekar

    Kai_Vandekar Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2005
    Oh, ok.

    I was 8 years old and spending part of the summer with my mom at my grandma's in Columbus, Ohio. I remember sitting on white front steps in the humid air, and having my mom come and sit beside me with a t-shirt in her hands. I think she knew I was bored and had no friends, and so she said there was this movie that had come out called "Star Wars" and maybe we could go see it. She then handed me the t-shirt, dark blue, with the Hildebrandt poster image on it. I remember not being at all interested - at that age, if animals weren't the main focus, I didn't want to see it or read it. I looked at the image on the t-shirt and was not impressed - there were some spaceships flying, and this dude with his chest showing all these gross muscles (Luke, with muscles! Ha ha!) and his hair swept up in such a way I thought he had little horns, which was dumb. And there was this slinky lady by his side, and this mask thing behind them and...well, where were the animals?

    But I agreed, because I knew my mom was trying to cheer me up, and besides, I was bored and lonely and didn't want to be in the house which smelled vaguely of mold and humidity with my grandma and other relatives who clearly wanted me to like them, and I did, but didn't understand them at all.

    So, we went, and I had the reaction to the first scene that everyone describes (and so did my mom). And...I fell in love with R2-D2. Apparently, he substituted for "animal" in my mind. Yes, R2-D2 was my hook into Star Wars. It was only as I got older that I transferred my affection to human characters! LOL! But it started an obsession. I also remember reading and rereading the novelization - I have a strong sensory memory of trying to look at the little picture insert while in a very dark Straw Hat Pizza. The pizza place still stands and to this day, even though it's remodeled, if I go inside I am transported back to childhood, reading the Star Wars novelization in there, in the dark.

    I was a Jawa for my 4th grade Halloween parade at school - sadly, there are no photos, but I was the perfect height.

    By 5th grade or so, my best friends and I were inventing our own Star Wars characters and by 6th grade I had written a 32 page story about them. One of those characters, reimagined, has taken life in Star Wars Galaxies and I play him now (although hopefully with a LOT more sophistication than I did at age 10, 11, 12, 13). That character in his first incarnation got me through Junior High with my sanity intact - I am glad to have him back in his new form.

    So, I can say that by extension, Star Wars got me through childhood and early adolescence. It really did. It was the place I could go in my mind and escape from childhood bullying and other stuff.

    I am so glad my mom showed up on those steps thirty years ago with a t-shirt and the offer of a summer movie to ease the boredom of a visit to the Ohio family homestead. It literally and truly changed my life for the better.

    And all without animals!

    - Kai
     
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