As a slight tangent, but still relevant to this all encompassing PT/OT and ST (peeyousey) thread. I'd be interested to hear everyone's first experience of Star Wars, in particular those of us here who are the younglings and were not luckily enough to experience the OT in the cinema.
It was 1977 and I was a tiny lad in our first house. I knew Star Wars was a thing because my older sisters and all of the adults around me had already seen it, and I'd seen clips or commercials on television.
It must have been mid or late afternoon when my mother said "Your father's coming home from work and we're going to see Star Wars."
I was a little apprehensive in the car because I didn't know what to expect. It seemed like a big, noisy adult thing. Would it be scary?
(I have pretty accurate memories of conversations at the age of 3 and dreams from early childhood, so what I'm recounting is probably accurate, decades later.)
There were 'big kids' in the theatre lobby looking intimidating and cool, joking around. One of them was clowning around and yelled "Take me to your leader!"
I saw the iconic poster of the sandtrooper riding a dewback, which is what the kid was clowning about.
What I don't especially remember is how I reacted to the entire film. I missed Han blasting Greedo that first time, because I had to visit the washroom. When my dad returned us to our seats my mother leaned over and whispered
"Greedo told Han 'Give me all your money' and he shot him!"
What I do remember is LOVING the climactic Death Star battle.
My parents asked me afterwards, was it okay, was it too 'noisy' for me? All I could say was: "I *liked* the noisy parts!"
(I think as a very little kid I equated 'noisy' with depictions of violence or jeopardy that scared me).
I had a lot of Star Wars toys after that. Got the X-Wing for Christmas, but also had the TIE, Cantina playset, Imperial Troop Transport, Landspeeder, Death Star playset, and Dewback, trading cards...my sisters had the board game but weren't much interested in action figures. Had the soundtrack LP. Neighbourhood kids and I would have EPIC battles, often playing the record -- our battles had high production value.
I remember meeting a very slightly older girl, daughter of one of my mother's friends, and being a little surprised she had action figures too. Girls would play Star Wars with us, but the toys themselves at the time were often the domain of little boys.
*EDIT: I should add that following Star Wars, Princess Leia became my second ever screen crush.
