I remeber the first time I saw Star Wars in 77. I was at a drive in theater, and my brother and I were playing on the jungle gym just under the screen when I first saw that Star Destroyer fly ovrhead. I remember almost falling off the jungle gym because I kept leaning back to try and take more of it in.

I remember seeing the Holiday special when it first aired, and saying to myself: "I knew TV couldn't be as good as Star Wars."

I remember my buddy had all the big ticket toys like the Falcon and the Death Star playset.

I remeber the two of us listening to "the story of Star Wars" LP while we re-enacted stuff with the figures. That's just what Star Wars fans did before home video releases.

I remember asking my dad almost every other night to take me back to see Star Wars again, and Dad telling me to wait until it came to TV. He might as well have told me "you'll never see it again".

I remember arguing with another kid on the playground that they weren't making a sequel to Star Wars (no internet back then). All I really cared about was seeing the original Star Wars again.

I remember my parents telling me that Star Wars was coming back to theaters, so they were going to take me out of school early as a treat to see it. And then when I got there, and saw the words "Star Wars" sink into the screen, the words that followed were different from what I remembered. Then suddenly we were over a snow planet! Talk about not having any expectations for a movie what so ever. I remember just being speechless afterwards, and asking when I could see the next one. When I found out it would be another 3 years or so, I was so despondant.

I remember my whole family, cousins, grandparents, aunts uncles all getting together to see Return of the Jedi for the first time. I remember my grandma -loved- the ewoks. She wanted to have some as pets. She also wanted to ride on a speederbike.

I remember years of films coming out after ROTJ that claimed to be "the next Star Wars" and whenever I saw them, they really weren't.

I remember my parents telling me it was time to grow up and sell all my SW toys at her garage sale. I remember nodding OK. I remember placing the stuff on the table, I remember watching people walk off with it as they bought it. I HAD A MINT JAWA WITH VINYL CAPE! My mom meant well.

I bought into the Shadows of the Empire "everything but the movie" marketing campaign. I too have the album and the N64 game, the graphic novel, and the novel. I also have the Dash Rendar figure and the Outrider toy ship, and a swoop bike.