So here they are, all four heartfelt entires into my Star Wars contest during Spooktacular, which prompted me to send something to each one and make the original prize a Grand Prize for Kenbenobi. His story simply resonated most with me:
Kenbenobi
I have SOOOO many choices for stories, but this is truly the most vivid happy memory I have of Star Wars. Not of the movies themselves, but of me, as a child, showing my fondness for Star Wars when I became obsessed with the Kenner toys when I was 9 years old, truly a sign of things to come!
My family didn't have much money when I was young. All of my friends saw Star Wars when it was initially in local theaters. But I didn't actually see Star Wars (ANH) until after ESB (when a friend's parents paid for my ticket). Thankfully, because movies returned to theaters multiple times back then, I didn't have to wait too long before seeing ANH at the 99 cents theater. Anyway, after I saw ESB I was IMMEDIATELY hooked on Star Wars! I understood what all my friends were hyping about, and absolutely HAD TO HAVE the action figures! I begged and pleaded my parents to buy me the figures! But they said we couldn't afford it. After non-stop begging, my Mom said I could have two figures. WHAT, ONLY TWO?!?!?! That wasn't enough! I couldn't accept that answer! I begged for at LEAST 4, but she wouldn't budge. However, the next day, a miracle happened!!! Target put the figures on sale for 88 cents each! I kid you not, 88 cents each for newly released ESB figures!!! When I saw this in the paper, I waited by the door for my Mom to get home. I waited by the door for HOURS until she FINALLY got home. I ran up to her with the ad as soon as one foot stepped into the house. I was jumping up and down like a maniac!!! Finally she put her purse down, and looked at the ad I was thrusting in her face. She looked at the ad, then at me, then back to the ad. "Let me talk to your father" she said. This worried me. My smile turned upside down. I knew what I was doing by asking my mother. This way, I had a chance. But my Dad? He would likely say NO. I crossed my fingers, and started praying. Could she knock some sense into him? Would he actually say yes? I couldn't accept no for an answer! He MUST say yes! After what seemed like eternity (but likely only a few minutes) she came back, and said I could have 10 figures BUT no allowance for the next month. I immediately started jumping for joy! But then reality hit me. TEN, THAT'S IT? I quickly starting begging for more, but they weren't going to budge on that one. I grabbed her arm, trying to pull her to the store RIGHT NOW! But she pointed out the sale didn't start until the next day. I couldn't handle waiting! I could barely eat or sleep that night! Thankfully, my Mom was off the next day, so we could be there when the store opened. It's a good thing we did, because there were LOTS of others waiting for the same sale! Everyone raced to the Star Wars endcap. There were TONS of figures, but they were going QUICKLY! I grabbed every single different figure I could find. 16 of them! I knew my Mom only said 10, but they had 16 and I wanted them ALL!!! I was all ready for disappointment when I showed her what I had in the cart. She immediately counted them, and said "you know you have 16 of them?" I sheepishly said "yeah, I know". Then the unexpected occurred. "You're going to have to do extra chores for this, you know." I couldn't believe my ears! REALLY? HONESTLY? I CAN HAVE THEM? I was SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!! I jumped up and down, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!" I was ECSTATIC! I was actually going to make my rich friends jealous! I could finally play with my OWN figures! This was the happiest day of my life (at that point), and I will forever remember it fondly.
XDUCKETTX
My fondest, earliest memory of Star Wars actually has more to do with the SNES Super Star Wars video games than the actual movies themselves. This was when I was in middle school (circa 1994), and I can remember eagerly wanting to go to the local rental place after school to pick up all three of the trilogy games with a buddy for the weekend. At the time neither one of us had seen the trilogy in its entirety, but had been exposed to brief clips, characters, and quotes. That all changed once we started playing the video games, taking breaks occasionally to eat slices of Pizza Hut my parents had ordered in for us. We were so in awe of what we were playing that we begged my parents to take us back to the store that same night to rent the movies. We got all three of the movies and had a marathon watching them overnight. We then spent the rest of the weekend reminiscing on our favorite parts while playing through the very challenging Super Nintendo games. After that weekend I developed a love for the Star Wars universe and devoured all the mythology and canon I could find as I got older from films, documentaries, video games featuring the expanded universe (my personal favorite being the very cool “Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire” game on the N64), and trade paperbacks.
Cut forward to just two weekends’ ago (October 6th): I married my best friend after dating her for seven years. It was a wonderful ceremony, and we incorporated a few fun Star Wars themed pieces. Our exit music after the ceremony was John Williams’ Throne Room medley (that originally played at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope). We also had R2D2 and C3PO cake toppers on my groom’s cake. Suffice to say Star Wars has become a very fond and personal part of my life since those early days.
Thanks for reading my entry, and even if it isn’t selected I just wanted to say how cool it is of you to put this contest on for us Freaks during this somewhat dismal Spooktacular. I had a lot of fun researching the trivia answers and also writing out my Star Wars’ childhood (and adulthood) memories. Cheers!
MeatHook
My fondest memory of Star Wars when I was a kid and I would search for quarters everywhere. I didn't really understand all about money, but I remember if you got 6 quarters, you could buy a Star Wars figure. And back then, everyone carried them. Hardware stores, clothing stores, grocery stores. And I remember how happy I was when I first found Boba Fett on the peg. It was right up there with finding Snake Eyes on the peg when GI Joe first came out. And so I wouldn't lose the weapons, as I was always using the weapons, I would store all the guns and accessories in the trap door of the Taun Taun, because back then they didn't have figures with articulated knees and hips, they had to mold the legs onto the side of the Taun Taun and there was a spring loaded trap door to stick the figures legs into it. My happiest Star Wars memories was how I felt when I had five quarters and I knew I only needed just one more until I could get my next figure.
Kamikaze
There really isn't a single story I can tell. The Original Trilogy is so interwoven with my childhood they are literally inseparable. When Star Wars first came out, I was perhaps in exactly the right frame of mind and the right age to get the absolute most out of it. I was almost 11 years old, and already starting to form an interest in science fiction...an early grounding from Star Trek in syndication, a little Dr. Who on PBS, and watching Space:1999, along with starting to try to read my father's science fiction book collection...though most of them were a bit beyond me, the covers were intriguing and the ones I could follow I enjoyed.
Then, here comes this big space movie. A young boy losing his family but gaining a larger world, almost reluctantly being dragged into becoming a hero. I hung on every word, every scene, every piece of ground-breaking special effects that was presented. The sights and sounds of the movie took my breath away. I even got fear from it, as the trash compactor scene scared me so much that on subsequent viewings I had to get up and leave right after Han dove down the chute, as I couldn't bear to watch Luke get pulled under, even though I knew he'd be alright.
I grew up in a town and at a time where theaters weren't so worried about the bottom line. We'd go to watch the early showing (6 or 6:30 kind of time frame), then stay in the theater and wait to watch the following showing, and the staff would just clean around us. Because of this, I got to see Star Wars into the double digits in its first run release, plus more when it was re-release when Empire Strikes Back came out.
My family didn't have a lot of money, so I didn't get the joy of many kids of buying, playing, and collecting all the toys. I did get myself my first job, a paper route, so I could afford to get the Marvel Star Wars comic books...the entire run still sits on my bookshelf to this day. Reading those stories kept me immersed in the Star Wars universe, and I filled many empty hours by making up my own stories and playing them out in my mind like mini movies...of course often starring myself as Luke, or some unnamed rebel hero.
One thing that is, in and of itself, not Star Wars related that has kept my childhood memories of Star Wars so close is a bit harder to talk about...typing is easier, so thanks for that  One night, as the family was getting out of the car after one of our double-StarWars viewing nights, we heard a faint sound from beneath the small pine trees that formed the border between our yard and the next. My mother, sister, and I searched and found a half-starved, young, orange-and-white stripped cat. We gave her some milk, and then some egg and milk, and the next morning discovered we had adopted a cat (or rather, she adopted us). Tigerlilly, as we named her, became a close companion to me, much more so than anyone else. We bonded, and at some pretty dark times in the following years she was my only real friend. She was a chatty cat, and we held long conversations sometimes. I have no idea what she was saying, but I meow'ed back at her and she never got upset, so I guess I wasn't saying anything terrible. She and Star Wars are inextricably linked in my heart, and I can't think of one without soon remembering the other fondly.
Well, I could probably ramble on for quite a while in this vein, but I think I need to go throw a certain DVD in the player and watch that most wonderful film that 35 years later can still make me smile, cringe, and even cry tears of joy (that throne room scene chokes me up, every time...even after what I'm sure is well over 100 viewings).
And with that, Spooktacular 2012 is a wrap for me.
*permission to publish was granted with entry into the contest.
