A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

May 25th, 1977 a movie called ‘Star Wars’ was released and the world as we knew it changed forever.  How ‘Star Wars’ changed a seven year old kid.

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Growing up myself and my sister and two cousins would always spend the night with my Aunt Sue. That night was always a Friday night and then on Saturday she would always take us to a movie. As kids we would all get to stay together with her one weekend during the summer. The other times we would all take turns staying with my Aunt. This particular time it was my turn to spend the night by myself.

It was Friday evening and my Aunt was now home from work and she asked which movie I wanted to see tomorrow. She gave me the newspaper and I started looking at the movie ads. I came across this movie called ‘Star Wars’ and it looked cool. So I said “I want to see ‘Star Wars'”. My Aunt had heard good things about this movie and she also wanted to see it. My Aunt was a big movie buff and I got that from her growing up.

The only problem with me wanting to see ‘Star Wars’ was it was rated PG and me being only seven my mom had already told me I could only see a G rated movie. Well I really wanted to see this movie, especially since my Aunt wanted to as well. My Aunt said I had to call my mom and ask. So I called and asked, who are we kidding, I begged my mom. Well after my mom talked to my Aunt about it, she said yes. BIG mistake mom…lol

Saturday came and I was always excited to go to the movies with my Aunt, this day was no different. We got to the movie theater and I got my drink and popcorn. The movie starts and I see this A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….. Then BAM, the ‘Star Wars’ logo comes up and starts fading back into the opening crawl. Then this ship comes barreling across the screen as if it is coming from over my head…WOW. Then this other ship even BIGGER than the first comes following it. I was hooked, I didn’t move from my seat the whole movie.

Once I got home I called my mom jacked up with excitement telling her all about it. Then I called my cousins to tell them about it. My Aunt and I were the first ones in the family to see ‘Star Wars’, but that didn’t last for long.

My cousins and myself were all hooked on ‘Star Wars’ for years after that with the toys and going to see the movies over and over again. For years after I loved playing with my ‘Star Wars’ toys alone in my bedroom having adventure after adventure. Anytime I was together with my cousins we did the same thing. Growing up ‘Star Wars’ was completely ingrained in me.

Years later my parents tell me I wouldn’t shut up about this movie until they took all of us back to see this movie again. On that day in May of 1977, I was completely changed by ‘Star Wars’, to say I was obsessed would be an understatement.

Well that is the story of the my first experience with ‘Star Wars’. What was your experience? (share with us on Facebook)

-Chris Hoth Iceplanet

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

Via Starwars.com:

Star Wars has always had a powerful connection to Christmas. By age eight, most of us could identify a wrapped Star Wars figure at 20 paces or more. We could tell — just from the size and shape of the package — when only a thin layer of giftwrap separated us from vinyl Jedi robes. We just had a sense of these things. My mom also had a trick of giving hints in the gift tags. The Death Star playset my brother got one Christmas was marked “To: Chris, From: The Emperor.” Only now does that sound vaguely disturbing. When he opened it up, in a furious thrashing and rending of cardboard, the first thing we marveled at was how something made for trash disposal could look so orange and beautiful.

Star Wars has always been an easy fit for Christmas, partly because we all have some version of those kinds of memories. We all wanted the toys. We were kids — that’s how it goes. Mailboxes and newspapers were filled with tons of letters to Santa, just like these:

Click below to read the full article.

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