This is a flashback to April 7th, 2017. We went to see Rogue One at Tinseltown in Kenosha that day. Watching Rogue One, then coming home and watching A New Hope brought back some very fond Star Wars memories for me. I first saw it when by brother-in-law Bob got it on a huge laserdisc. I remember thinking it cost a fortune, though I don’t remember how much. According to the internet, the first version of A New Hope (the first home video release of ANY Stars Wars film) was released on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc and VideoDisc in May of 1982. Since I’m a little rusty on the years and how old I was, I’ll have to just trust this is accurate, which would have made me 19 years old. Anyway, at that time I often babysat for my nieces, Linda and Melissa (Missy) while my sister Penny and her husband Bob worked. I remember a video store in Market Square mall, which was located where the Kenosha Job Center is today. That mall also housed a theater and my favorite arcade–Funway Freeway. I remember the price of that Star Wars VHS movie when it was released, it was $99. Movies were crazy-expensive back then…and that was on TAPE!

Having Star Wars as an entertainment option back then was pretty exciting though. Linda, Missy and I watched it often and enjoyed it each and every time, learning and memorizing all we could. They even had a lot of the Star Wars toys, including many action figures. I remember “Gramma Tarkin”, Missy’s version of “Gran Moff Tarkin” and “Jabba Wah Neechie Ko Wah Boo Shahnee Wan Tawnie Wan Yoska” from the cantina scene. Repeating and those phrases many times over the years burned them into my brain like the Baby Shark song does today. Luckily, however, Baby Shark will fade eventually (or so I hope) like most others do. But I continue to try to retain my good nerdy Star Wars memories ‘to infinity and beyond!’ LOL