May the Force be with us

I take it we've all seen this:


When I was young, we had this old television, and a cable box tethered to the TV with a cord.  Push button 15 and it brought us HBO.

In the late 70's and early 80's HBO showed Star Wars all the time.  And I watched it.  Over and over.

In 1983 Return of the Jedi came to the theater.  I'll never forget it.  It was storming that day.  The power in the theater went out during the battle of Endor.  I was 8, the right age for all the Ewok marketing.  (Hell, I wanted to live in the Ewok village)

It would be many years before I saw The Empire Strikes Back.

Why?

Well, they first had to invent the VCR.  Then they had to invent a video rental store.  Then the price had to come down.  (Early VHS players were spendy!)  I saw the middle movie so far after the fact, to this day it's not one of my favorites.

I saw the prequels when they came out.  I went to each soaring with anticipation.  And they were good.

My father shared his love of Science Fiction with my brother and me.  He and Star Wars (And later Star Trek: The Next Generation) helped form my love of reading, my love of superhero movies and my love of the SyFy channel.

This weekend I saw the footage above.  I will admit, there were tears in my eyes.

For the love of God, JJ.  Don't f*ck this up!