Today is the 30th anniversary of the opening of “Star Wars,” and the US postal service is commemorating it with some new stamps.
May 25, 1977, was the end of my sophomore year in high school, I was 15, and I didn’t go see the movie. I had other plans that summer, including a trip to Connecticut. When I got back, my four little brothers could talk about nothing else but “Star Wars.” That fall I went to Broadview Academy, and I read the novelization of “Star Wars” on breaks at Harris Pine Mills. I didn’t see the movie until it came out on video–same for “Empire Strikes Back.” “Return of the Jedi” (which opened May 25, 1983) was the only one of trilogy I saw in the theater; by that time I had been married a year and was looking forward to being a senior in college. My youngest brother was only 8, Jim was 13, and they and my other siblings were still primarily interested in “Star Wars” toys.
Advent Hope 
The rest of us saw the first “Star Wars” several months after it came out at the drive-in with “Bugsy Malone.” That was after pestering Mom and Dad for months to take us, and after we already had all the toys.