Star Wars

The night before third grade started, I went to see Star Wars. The original Star Wars. It had been out for some time, and my Uncle had seen it once, maybe twice. He was captivated by the film. I believe he was in his late twenties at the time. The night before the first day of school, I had my pajamas on and was in bed. I was in my new bedroom – my parents had converted the dining room downstairs so that I could have some privacy from my little brother as I matured. The new bedroom was downstairs, my brother was upstairs with my baby sister in the other bedroom.

Because my bedroom was downstairs, and because I was way too excited about the first day of school to sleep, I could hear when my Uncle came up the basement stairs and knocked on the door. I heard him tell my dad and mom he would like to take me and my brother to Star Wars. I heard my parents resist. The kids were in bed, it was the night before the first day of school. We needed our rest. I heard my uncle give a long spiel, begging, urging, pleading, and I heard my parents break down and say okay. My heart went in my throat as my mom shouted for Andy and me to get dressed and come into the living room. We were going to see Star Wars! What a story to tell the kids at school!

I remember the strange sensation of having to get dressed after my pajamas were already on. Did I put on the clothes I wore that day or put on new clothes? I put on new clothes. My brother had no clue why mom was calling us, but he soon found out. It was probably only 8:30pm, I think it was still light out. My parents were always putting us to bed when it was still light out in the summer. We went to the movie and it was totally captivating and exciting and everything we hoped it would be. We only went to maybe one or two movies a year, so the darkened theater and the big screen were a relatively novel experience for us. I remember my uncle giving me Doublemint gum.

After the movie, he took us to McDonald’s. It was one of the old McDonald’s where the two giant arches went over the whole building, and we sat on stools at a white formica counter facing out the windows toward the parking lot. There were crappy toys at McDonald’s then, and no Happy Meals. We got hamburgers and fries, and a hand puppet of Ronald McDonald that was made out of plastic bag material. I remember we got home after midnight, and I was tired as hell and happy as a clam.

We saw the Empire Strikes Back at a drive-in theater several years later. I remember whispering to Luke that Darth couldn’t possibly be his father. I remember being so emotionally caught up in that one and drained at the end. Return of the Jedi, the dumb one with the Ewoks, I saw on a date, and missed most of it because I was making out with my boyfriend through the whole thing. But that first Star Wars movie was one of the first times I had an experience that lived up to, even surpassed my every expectation.