-Today marks the 40th anniversary of when the original STAR WARS movie ( “A New Hope”) was released back in 1977. This was the earliest science fiction movie that I can recall seeing (I’d seen STAR TREK (TOS) on TV, but that was TV…). It’s release had a major impact of my wee little mind. I became obsessed with all things Star Wars. My folks must have spent a fortune on Star Wars merch when I was a kid. I was luck that I saw the original movie many times in an actual theater-which I’m sure cemented Star Wars into my brain. let’s go back a little bit.

-From 1977-1980, I lived on the island of Kwajalein-a part of the Marshall Islands. Basically a three by five mile island. There were 90+ plus islands within the atoll-which was part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific if I recall correctly. If I ever do get to writing “WAYNE-THE BOOK,” there will be a chunk of it devoted to my time here cause a good chunk of the vividness of my childhood memories started here. In many ways, living there was very much like the fairy tale stories you hear about living out your life on a tropical island in happiness. Of course, not all the experiences for me there were positive, but that’s another set of stories for another time…

-The Marshall Islands are around 2,100 miles southwest of Hawaii. In order to travel to the United States, you had to stop at Hawaii first (1-2 times I believed we stopped at Midway to refuel or something). We would go every year to visit my grandparents. The shopping malls there were where I got introduced to Godzilla, Ultra Man, an early version of the Power Rangers (Super Sentai? But the costumes were different…) and Shogun Warriors. That would all get pushed towards the back once I got hit with Star Wars, but I digress…

-So we were basically in Hawaii, twice a year, for a few days for three years. I don’t remember the name of the theater, (or even if it still exists), but there was this one theater that-for three years (maybe more)-had Star Wars showing and it was basically a ritual that I had to see the film whenever I was in Hawaii. So I saw the original film multiple times in a theater and I never lost the thrill of the opening scene when that star destroyer emerged, nor the magic of the rest of the film.

-I was even more obsessed when ” The Empire Strikes Back” was released. I had moved to the United States by then so I didn’t see it that much-till they were released on VHS. “Return of the Jedi” didn’t hit me as hard and, to date, I still haven’t watched the three prequels-even though I have them all on blu-ray. There will be a Star Wars marathon someday in my future 🙂

-I still have some of that merch somewhere in a storage area. Most of it is probably already gone, but hopefully I still have some of them left. Probably not in collectors condition unfortunately. It was definitely a magical time and, perhaps, that marathon might be happening soon than I expect 😉