“But what’s it about?”

“Oh, it’ll be kind of like Star Trek,” he said.

“Oh, sounds neat.”

Well, that’s all the convincing that I needed. By then, Star Trek reruns were just coming to popularity, and I thought it’d be great to see adventures like that of Kirk and that pointy-eared guy.

I had no idea that my imagination was to forever be altered. I convinced Dad to let me sit on the front row of the all-too-crowded theatre. From the moment that those big, bright yellow letters first appeared on the giant screen at the old Capri Twin (now the shoddy Carmike 8 theatre), I was instantly lost into a universe where the good guys blew up the bad guys in a way that I could never have comprehended before.

From that moment on, Star Wars dominated my imagination. My brother and I would ride our bikes to the neighborhood TG&Y store and look for the newest action figures. Of course, those figures would carry on the adventures of Luke and Han against those bad guys in the white armor and that really nasty guy in the black outfit.

So yes, Star Wars was in many ways the very definition of my childhood. It is also why I’m still very much of a kid at heart. There’s always going to be that part of me that will look to the stars and hope that the Force will be with me.

Let’s make the jump to Light Speed and save the day, shall we?