In 1978 my parents did something I will never forget. They allowed me my first glimpse at a movie that would change everything for me. The pulled our car (packed full with Dad, Mom, Sister and myself) into a bowling alley parking lot, as STAR WARS was playing across the street at the Drive-In Theatre. Obviously the buzz about STAR WARS was gigantic at the time, and the urge to see it from my sister and myself had to be nerve racking. And, as all good parents would do, with kids screaming and panting at the passenger side windows, seeing Storm Troopers race across a giant screen, they pulled over so we could catch a quick 20 minutes of the excitement, no sound, no thrills, but very much larger than life.
The Drive-In theatre in St. Joseph, Missouri was located on the Belt Highway, and the screen directly faced the street, thus making whatever was being shown completely visible to cars passing by. On this night we were in luck. My mom was in luck (as the very cautious mother she was) got a chance to “check out” the film before letting her children “pay” for admission, and we got a taste of the magic that was sweeping the world. A few weeks later, my mom, sister and I returned to the Drive-In, with cash in hand, cheap speaker clamped to our driver side window, and the magic unfolded, and I can honestly say…life has never been quite the same since. This was my introduction to the world of fantasy, make-believe, cinema, wizardry, geeks, nerds, and all the things that I would grow to love…this was it…unfolding before my eyes, on the big screen and in my heart.
The impact STAR WARS had on my life at the age of four or five was amazing. I truly believe this was the first time in which the “collecting” bug bit. I had to find everything. I sought it ALL out. Action figures, comic books, view-masters, iron-on’s, play-sets, bed sheets, school supplies, and when Darth Vader himself (along with two Jaw-Waw’s named Frick & Frack) came to J.C.Penny for an autograph session…whoo-hoo!, you know I was there! STARS WARS made me believe in a world outside our own. A place in which a normal kid, could become extraordinaire. A place in which any of your dreams could come true.
As I look back its fairly obvious that it was around this time my taste for all things a little ‘dark’ came into fruition as well. I was never a Luke Skywalker kid. I was more Han Solo. Although I thought Princess Leia was gorgeous, nothing made me drop everything to play with her action figure. I was definitely a Storm Trooper / Darth Vader boy. There was something so sinister and evil about them, I immediate fell in love. The clanking of their boots on the metal floor, the breathing, the swagger, they had it all…power and cool. This would play a major role in my selection of heroes as I grew.
Like most childhood fads kids fall in love with, that come one day and are gone the next, STAR WARS never left me. I can remember the excitement unwrapping my Millennium Falcon for Christmas 1979. The joy of receiving the Hoth play-set for Christmas of my 2nd grade year (excited as all get-out that there was snow on the ground and “Hoth” could ACTUALLY BE “Hoth”!). And, best of all…my golden birthday…8 years old on April 8th, shooting hoops outside on a Spring morning before my birthday party was to commence wearing a killer Yoda Iron-On t-shirt.
Memories like this don’t just come from anywhere. I sometimes think we are born to share in experience like this. Those moments that take your breathe away and stay with you for a lifetime, forming you into what you will one day become. In my case, it was a collecting geek, with a pension for all things larger than life.
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