![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjMemory is a funny thing. I was just doing some fact-checking to write this little trip down memory lane and discovered that I had completely conflated the experiences of watching the first two Star Wars movies. I was all ready to reminisce about a bunch of us piling into my college housemate's car to drive off to Sacramento to watch Star Wars, and the thrill of seeing the start of a cultural phenomenon in company with a collection of geeky SCA friends, topped off by one of those amusing snafus of youth when the owner of the car announced that it "didn't do reverse" and we had to manually push it out of the parking spot before piling in to return home.
And then I checked the release date for the first Star Wars movie and realized that that couldn't possibly have happened. Because in May, 1977 I hadn't yet met the owner of that car. I didn't yet have a collection of geeky college friends. I hadn't even joined the SCA yet. (Joining the SCA happened in the fall of 1977.) I was remembering our collective movie-watching expedition to see The Empire Strikes Back, in June 1980, when I had just graduated from U.C. Davis and was dawdling in that college town working in fast food with the hope of picking up a biotech or academic-related job. (Spoiler: didn't happen. Had to move elsewhere. Long story.)
So when and where and with whom did I see the first Star Wars movie? I honestly don't recall! If I remember the U.C. Davis academic calendar correctly, I think the quarter may still have been in progress. (The UCD calendar ran later than other institutions which were on the semester system, which was an annoyance for those trying to snag summer jobs.) But I don't remember having any particularly close friends that I would have seen it with at that time. (Certainly none that would have had cars, and it wouldn't likely have been showing in Davis.) And then I was off for a brief and truncated summer job in Marin County (another long story) for less than a month before returning to my parents' house in San Diego for the rest of the summer.
I have a vague visual memory of seeing some sort of hot-topic movie with my brothers down at the El Cajon shopping center during some summer. Maybe it was that one but I don't think so because the vague memory is of showing up early for some new release and the theater manager offering us free passes in exchange for toting some boxes for him. And Star Wars wouldn't have been a new enough release at that point to have required getting in line early.
So there you are: the communal movie experience of my generation and I have no memory at all of what sort of communal context I saw it in.
I like communal movie watching. It adds a sort of ritual to the experience that helps anchor it in a social context. There are movies that I never saw in the theater because I wanted to do it in company and didn't have anyone to go with. (In recent decades, I more often go to theatrical movies by myself because it's usually a spur-of-the-moment decision. But the Concord crowd often puts out a facebook call for a communal watch, which is nice.)
And then I checked the release date for the first Star Wars movie and realized that that couldn't possibly have happened. Because in May, 1977 I hadn't yet met the owner of that car. I didn't yet have a collection of geeky college friends. I hadn't even joined the SCA yet. (Joining the SCA happened in the fall of 1977.) I was remembering our collective movie-watching expedition to see The Empire Strikes Back, in June 1980, when I had just graduated from U.C. Davis and was dawdling in that college town working in fast food with the hope of picking up a biotech or academic-related job. (Spoiler: didn't happen. Had to move elsewhere. Long story.)
So when and where and with whom did I see the first Star Wars movie? I honestly don't recall! If I remember the U.C. Davis academic calendar correctly, I think the quarter may still have been in progress. (The UCD calendar ran later than other institutions which were on the semester system, which was an annoyance for those trying to snag summer jobs.) But I don't remember having any particularly close friends that I would have seen it with at that time. (Certainly none that would have had cars, and it wouldn't likely have been showing in Davis.) And then I was off for a brief and truncated summer job in Marin County (another long story) for less than a month before returning to my parents' house in San Diego for the rest of the summer.
I have a vague visual memory of seeing some sort of hot-topic movie with my brothers down at the El Cajon shopping center during some summer. Maybe it was that one but I don't think so because the vague memory is of showing up early for some new release and the theater manager offering us free passes in exchange for toting some boxes for him. And Star Wars wouldn't have been a new enough release at that point to have required getting in line early.
So there you are: the communal movie experience of my generation and I have no memory at all of what sort of communal context I saw it in.
I like communal movie watching. It adds a sort of ritual to the experience that helps anchor it in a social context. There are movies that I never saw in the theater because I wanted to do it in company and didn't have anyone to go with. (In recent decades, I more often go to theatrical movies by myself because it's usually a spur-of-the-moment decision. But the Concord crowd often puts out a facebook call for a communal watch, which is nice.)
