First posted on the OS on April 17, 2006.
How I became a fan, started a trend, discovered a Sith... and was undone by evil...
If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing, at least as far as Star Wars is concerned. It really started big time for me after The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980. My sister and I saw it together so many times that we started a family joke that has lasted until this day... It was about our 12th time in the theatre, I think, and just as the 20th Century Fox fanfare came on the screen, she turned to me and whispered, "I've SEEN this movie!" (more on that later when I talk about my two Padawans)
I was working the night shift in the back office of an amusement park that summer. Most of us had seen the movie, all of the cool ones of us at least... My best friend and I worked on a balky Apple computer, and we kept a figure of Yoda on top of the monitor to keep The Force with us. I once commented that those of us who were best at our jobs were "Jedi" , and a trend was born... for five years after that we called the best of the best "Jedi".
It really intensified after Return of the Jedi was released in 1983. People left the job, and new people came along, but most everyone fell into the the fun. At last I was a trendsetter!
In 1985 my husband and I took off work, took our son out of school, and went to San Francisco to see the Trilogy played together at the Coronet Theatre. It wasn't just a trip to the movies, we had to get up at 4:30 am to get there a 6am to get in line to buy tickets. The box office opened at 8, the theatre at 2 and the first show was at 4. So, we spent most of the day waiting in lines to see three movies we'd already seen several times before. It was a blast! {grin} One of my employees was there, too, and he was interviewed by the local news... they were asking people "aren't you afraid someone will see you on TV?" and he replied "It's OK for me, my boss is here!" At one point they panned the TV camera along the line and told us to "act normal" and we all started laughing...
Then the dark times came.... I acquired a Sith for a boss... My ROTJ poster offended him....(he should have seen my dining room!) He was one of those people who just didn't get it... once one of my more clever employees wrote a story about the Evil Empire and the Jedi Master (me) and Darth XXXX (him) and posted it on the bulletin board... It was hilarious.... 3 years later we're in litigation, and they're trying to make ME look like the evil one and they actually introduced that story into evidence... it was pathetically funny when they asked a witness if they recalled that I was a "really big Star Wars fan..." And that is relevant how??? Ha, I should have nailed them for violating my religious rights as a Jedi...
So, that's how I discovered the Dark Side at the age of 29, after living a sheltered life among other Jedi.... {wink} Blindsided by a Sith! And I sensed a plot to destroy me, too... just couldn't do anything about it, rather like Mace Windu...
So, is any of the relevant now? I don't know, but it's the story of a long time Star Wars fanatic and how it affected my life.
So, remember, if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing...
And may the Force be with us all.
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