I was reading online tonight that March 14th was the 10th anniversary of the theatrical release of “Return of The Jedi: Special Editionâ€. This makes me feel old. I can remember very vividly going to all of the Special Edition premieres. In fact, my life was very much all about Star Wars back then. My girlfriend at the time and I were just really to start getting into prop collecting, and within a few months, we would actually be in business with a guy from Baltimore, Maryland going from convention to convention selling prop replicas and also making a pretty good penny on a newly opened website called eBay.
I can remember that each time we went to the theater we would stop at Aunt Annie’s Pretzels and grab about 6 cinnamon and sugar pretzels and I would stuff them in my jacket and we would eat them during the movie. In fact, to this day, I cannot eat one of those pretzels without thinking about Star Wars.
It was a very interesting and fun time in my life. I was in my second (and last) semester in college, only a few weeks from dropping out. (the college I was going to didn’t offer what I wanted at the time) My girlfriend at the time was a senior in high school, and my life was starting to change with the prospect of leaving school and getting my first real, full time job . We did a lot of traveling back then as well, which was something that was also new to me. I can remember almost every time we went to see the Special Editions, and most of the circumstances around those viewings. We would almost always go to the same theater, which was the old Steamtown Theater in Scranton. The theater itself is still there physically, but it is now under a different name, and from what I have been told, totally remodeled on the interior. I should make an effort one day to go see a movie there and see how much it really has changed.
I miss those times.
