Thirty Years Ago, We Truly Began To Live

Thirty years ago today, I was too young to remember anything that happened. Had I been more aware, I’m sure that I would have observed merriment and celebration. Thirty years ago today, Pac-Man was released and The Empire Strikes Back hit theaters. The perfect storm.

I wish now that I had been born five years sooner, just to be aware enough of my surrounding to observe the magic happen. One of the greatest, most iconic video games of all time coming out on the same date as the best of the Star Wars movies. Eating power pellets and chasing ghosts and meeting Boba Fett for the first time ever. What a day it must have been.

I’m pretty sure that if I had been more in tune with what was going on that day, I would have pooped myself. Hell, I have to check on how long I took to potty train because I may very well have actually pooped myself that day.

At any rate, I salute you, May 21^st of 1980! During your twenty-four hour span, Abraham Lincoln spoke no words. No new celestial body was touched by human feet. Nobody won a Super Bowl or any other sports championship for that matter.

Nay, two things, each of far more lasting importance happened. It is a day that ought to be celebrated by nerd-dom for the rest of time. It’s not every day that you can be blessed with a brand new distraction to spend hours of unlit time playing. Nor is it every day that the best of six epic movies pisses you off with its ending, only to have you appreciate it more as time goes on.

This was truly a remarkable day in history. Google celebrated it today by making a playable Pac-Man game in its daily logo. This served to distract me for a good twenty minutes from looking up what I’d gone into my office to search for. I still don’t remember what it was I needed to find out at the time, but leave it to Pac-Man to put things in perspective. Whatever it was wasn’t as fun as chomping colorful 8-bit ghosts, so it must not have been that important.

And what can I say about The Empire Strikes Back? How great is a movie when it is the ultimate tease but you still love it? This is a film that gave us immense action. We were wowed by advancing AT-ATs and the wondrous cloud-scape of Bespin, only to have the good guys lose.

Is Lando good or bad?

Vader is Luke’s father??

Han is frozen and kidnapped???

So is Luke a Jedi yet or not????

That’s all we get to see of Boba Fett?! Who the hell is that guy???!!!

This was my first experience as a kid with a non-happy ending to a movie. How I hated this episode. Yet, in the years to come, it would grow on me. The toys I found myself playing with the most were those from Episode V. I came to appreciate the plot development and the fact that not everything will go smoothly for the good guys all the time. Plus, the giant asteroid worm that nearly ate the Millennium Falcon was cool as hell, and not nearly as random as the Ewoks.

Let me just say that if today is your thirtieth birthday, I would start playing the lottery if I were you.