Bubblegum Memories

    A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… well actually it was London and about 1977 to be exact…

    A film was about to be released on the world that would change everything as we knew it, but this was in a time when there was no such thing as the internet, and TV coverage was not as it is today. This was a simpler time, when a film could be released without us knowing all the details before we stepped into the theatre… yes we called them theatres back then also.

    So there was this young boy in 1977, about to have this mighty film launched upon his innocent mind, and what did he have to get him excited about this coming attraction?

    Bubblegum cards. 

Yes indeed, that was this little boy’s introduction to the first Star Wars film.

    The cards came out before the film was released, so he clutched these wonderful cards in his little hands and dreamt about what the images meant, he imagined what the possible story was and who all these strange characters were. The films were special to him as kind Uncle Lucas always released them around his birthday, he would always remember where he had seen them and this initial epic would be the first film he clearly remembered seeing a film on the big screen.

    But the memory of the cards had its own special place, as these were where the imagination started. This was the year that crafted the individual that went on to make his own tales of imagination, and his own strange characters that hopefully had other little boys sitting somewhere waiting to discover more of his world.

    So let me now take you back to this time and share a few of these cards and maybe the memories that went with them…

  

    Artoo-Detoo was a little droid, we had no idea what a droid was in those days, today you can’t turn without falling over one, but back then this little bin-like fella was a strange looking character, and that was before we had even heard a single tweet from him.

    Darth Vader an imposing looking person, I mean just look at this picture. He is all dressed in black, so he must be evil, and he is pointing, so he is evil and of some authority, he also has someone dressed as a German behind him just to reinforce the fact that he is evil… and captures princesses for a job or fun.

    Luke and Leia, ah what a romantic couple they make. Here they are about to swing across the CHASM. That sounds scary and Luke sounds heroic to do it. Every boy must have wanted to be Luke and win the princess, and every girl must have wanted to be Leia and date a farmer. They were undoubtedly star-crossed lovers… what do you mean that is his sister, what sort of twisted mind thought of that one!

    Rebels defending, now this is another image full of mystery. Who are the rebels and what are they defending. This corridor was a centre of action in the cards, with a number showing the story and the previous Evil Pointer being shown in said corridor… no doubt pointing a bit more. It was also confusing to the little boy as there were pictures of our heroes dressed as Stormtroopers, so were the guys in white really the baddies?

    Finally we get to Han and Chewie, now these were the pair that got the imagination rolling. Han looked like a cool guy, and he had a freaking giant bear with a crossbow as his sidekick… and wasn’t a farm boy who dated his sister. This was probably who the boys really wanted to be, either that or Chewie of course.

And so that brings to an end this little memory of Star Wars and how a few cards stirred the imagination of a little boy. It was a simpler time, when we could be excited by the mystery of what was to come by the simple form of an image… and then bad Uncle Lucas gave us Manakin and those Midchlorine thingies, and the boy was already disappointed by the taste of gum now he thinks about it.