The day before my entire world changed forever was December 25, 1984. The day before I discovered Iron Maiden for the first time. December 26 1984 would alter the trajectory of my life forever, but just as memorable was the day before. The infamous Christmas Day when I received the GI Joe Killer W.H.A.L.E. hovercraft from my parents.
My parents kept up the “Santa” charade for a few years longer because my sister was still young. Our Christmas tradition was that after we went to bed, mom and dad would get our “fun” gifts (the toys and games) out of the attic and leave them around the tree from “Santa”. They were unwrapped and ready for us when we woke up in the mornings. Truly, the happiest mornings of my life were waking up (always early) and turning on the lights to see what treasures awaited us. Atari games, GI Joes, Transformers, and more. Christmas of ’84 was the year I knew I was getting the GI Joe hovercraft from “Santa”.
I could not sleep, a problem I still suffer from today. On that Christmas Eve, I decided it wasn’t worth trying to fall asleep. So I laid there in bed, waiting for the parents to go to sleep and turn off the lights. Eventually they did. I’m not sure how long I waited after that. Ten minutes? Fifteen? An hour? At some point in the wee hours of the morning I got out of bed, went downstairs, and turned on the lights.
There it was – the Killer W.H.A.L.E., the big item up for sale that year and the star of two issues of the Marvel comic. It came with a pilot figure named Cutter, an essential member of the Joe nautical forces. I ripped open the box and began assembling. What a beast of a vehicle it was! It had two elevating side cannons, two missile boxes with four missiles in each, two manned machine gun turrets, a rack of depth charges, an escape motorcycle, and a launchable water sled for covert operations. On the pilot’s upper deck there was room for two Joes including Cutter. Below the opening top hatch was room for several more passengers. Fully loaded with the two gunners, you could carry 10-12 Joes into battle. At the back, triggered by a hidden button, you could spin the massive fans. In the front, a ramp opened up so your Joes could take the beach and save the day. It was a complex build with lots of parts and stickers and windows.
There arose such a clatter that my dad came downstairs to see what the hell was up. He was shocked to see me there with my hovercraft at about 1:00 in the morning.
“Santa came,” I said stupidly with no better excuse.
He left me to assemble my new hovercraft and I tried to keep it as quiet as possible.
What a Christmas. Could that have been peak Christmas for me? The next year I got a dual tape deck, but I didn’t wake up at 1 AM to open it. Considering the extreme early morning, the epic gift, and the transformative Boxing Day, that could indeed have been peak Christmas. Music would slowly begin to dominate, changing things forever, but leaving memories just as sweet.
I’ve always had trouble letting go. Even though rock music was my true obsession, there was some overlap. Even into grade nine, I still bought GI Joe comics and figures. It was always hard letting go of an obsession. My “favourite things”, in order of discovery were:
Star Wars until its natural end in 1983-84.
GI Joe/Transformers from 1984 to 1986-87.
Rock music from 1984 to present.
WWF Wrestling from 1985 to 1990.
You can see how the evolution of this worked. A GI Joe figure was in the same scale as Star Wars, but with far more articulation well suited to an older kid. The first wave of figures even featured real-world accurate weapons. They were a natural step for a kid still wanting that action figure experience, but geared for someone older. Transformers went hand in hand, since Marvel were producing a comic line to go for each. Transformers resembled the die-cast cars that older kids (and adults) collected and displayed.
I discovered heavy metal music on December 26, 1984. A few months later, wrestling appeared on my radar with the very first Wrestlemania. A lot of those guys looked like rock stars, with crazy costumes, long hair and male bravado.
As my interests shifted and evolved, so did my collections. The Star Wars toys were put into storage in the crawl space. I was given tape boxes, Christmas after Christmas, to store my growing music collection. A typical Christmas would see me receiving some new tapes and action figures. I’d sit in my bedroom reading GI Joe comics while rocking out to Long Way to Heaven by Helix. I was a weird kid but I liked what I liked and didn’t much care.
The Joe characters diversified along with me. In 1984 they got a little more outlandish with the introduction of Zartan and the Dreadnoks. Zartan, the master of disguise, was a deluxe action figure whose skin colour turned blue in direct sunlight. This gimmick only worked outdoors, which meant we played with Zartan outside in the summer while giving him a rest in the winter. His backup didn’t arrive on toy shelves until 1985. They were three bikers named the Dreadnoks: Buzzer, the Brit with a ponytail and a chainsaw, the mohawked Ripper, and the flamethrower Torch who had a bit of a Lemmy beard going on. Their Mad Max inspired outfits would have allowed them to fit into a rock band quite easily, if only they came with musical instruments instead of weapons. They’d make a cool punk trio.
The Dreadnoks expanded their lineup the following year. On explosives came Monkeywrench, bearded and obsessed with Guy Fawkes. Then in a deluxe set came the vehicle driver Thrasher, and his definitely Mad Max inspired Thunder Machine car. Made of bits and pieces of scrap, it hit the same post-apocalyptic notes as the other Dreadnoks, as well as rock bands like Motley Crue, Kiss, and Armored Saint. Thrasher had a punk rock streak of green in his hair. And now they were a quintet. They were literally begging for me to make them custom musical instruments.
There were always wooden match sticks in the house, so I used them for guitar necks, drum stands, drumsticks, and a microphone. Cardboard boxes were cut up to make the bodies of guitars and a few drums and cymbals. Black electrical tape held them all together. And so the Dreadnoks became a five piece band, and I put them on display in my bedroom on a shelf with my Kiss cassettes.
If only I had a picture of my Dreadnok band. Not everybody had a camera back then. Even if you did, it seemed film was always out! You can imagine what they looked like!
We’re locked down, but not knocked down as this week’s live show proved! From 1977 to 1991, stories of Christmases past were unfurled for fun discussion. From the Star Wars years, through GI Joe, Transformers, and Atari, to cassettes, CDs and VHS, the greatest years of our lives were presented. Then, special guest LeBrain’s Mom joined the latter half of this episode for her first on-screen appearance…bearing wine!
I had a great night and I hope you did too. Lots of visual aids this time. Thanks for watching!
I’ve been an early riser since my youngest memories. It probably has to do with an anxiety disorder that was undiagnosed until my 40s. It happened mostly on weekends. I’d be so excited for the weekend to begin, that I would be up at 5 or 6 AM.
My earliest memory of waking up early was Boxing Day, the year I received my Lego 371 seaplane. The set came out in 1977, and that could have been the Christmas I received it. It was a fantastic set with plenty of slopes, opening doors and two figures. I got up at 2 AM to take it apart and put it back together again. I woke up my dad who came down to see what all the noise was. He wasn’t happy!
My parents didn’t have much choice. They had to get used to it because I kept waking up early. Quite often, I suddenly woke up after a cool dream of making something interesting out of Lego. I would run downstairs and try to make it in real life. Sometimes I would try to draw pictures of things I dreamed. Other mornings I was just excited that it was Saturday, or Sunday, with no school.
There was usually not much to do on those early mornings. In the 70s and 80s, television stations went dark overnight, usually starting the broadcasting day at 6 AM. Nothing on TV but test patterns or static. If you waited long enough, eventually the national anthem would begin, to start the broadcast day. Then came the religious programming. You had to sit through an hour of TV preachers to get to the cartoons. I was well familiar with Jimmy Swaggart and many more whose names times has forgotten.
On one occasion, I woke my parents up in glee.
“Mom! Dad! Did you know there was a THIRD testament of the Bible? I wonder when we’re going to learn about that one in school!”
Never, that’s when! Nobody told me the difference between a Catholic and a Mormon.
Another morning I raced upstairs to tell them more good news I saw on TV. One of the religious shows was discussing the creation of the solar system, which I sketched out. But the big part was that Jesus was coming back in the year 2000. That’s what the show said, and I couldn’t wait to tell my parents. I was so excited that I actually took notes.
The most irritating of the morning TV preachers was Henry Feyerabend, a Seventh Day Adventist. He had this condescending smile. Feyerabend was probably the one who got me all excited about Jesus coming back. I really grew to hate his face after awhile. He’d talk about things such creationism, and sing hymns with these other dudes. I was into science at a young age so the creationism always bugged me. But there was nothing else on TV. Not until Bugs Bunny at 7:00.
My early morning TV adventures were not all uplifting ones. I woke up really early one Saturday, and a channel was in the middle of late horror movie night. I don’t know the name of the film that I saw, and I’ve never been able to find out. All I can remember is that there was a mad scientist or doctor of some kind. He had little voodoo robots that looked like people. In one scene, one of the little voodoo dolls stabbed and killed a woman with a pair of scissors.
I didn’t even know you could stab a person with scissors. I wasn’t getting any more sleep that night! But it would be amazing to find out what the name of the movie was, and see it again. See how closely it matches my memories.
The last straw for my dad was Christmas Day 1984. It was the year I got my GI Joe Killer W.H.A.L.E. hovercraft. One of the best toys in the entire line, incidentally. I couldn’t sleep. I went to bed, tossed and turned, and waited. The adults were all downstairs laughing and drinking. I waited for that to die down. Then I could hear the shuffling about as presents were laid around the tree for us. The parents went to bed, and I decided I had waited long enough. Sleep was cancelled. Assembling of the GI Joe hovercraft commenced henceforth. Once again, my dad trudged down the stairs to see what the noise was. There I was, ankle deep in GI Joe parts and stickers, so happy to have my hovercraft.
Nobody else was happy, but that hovercraft was the centerpiece of my GI Joe forces for years to come. It was and is totally badass.
Time went on, I grew up, but early morning rising never really ended. There were a couple semesters in University when I only had afternoon classes, and my sleep patterns shifted to later in the day, which was really weird for me. By and large I have remained early to bed, early to rise.
I didn’t think it was much of a problem. It was “just the way I am”. When I told a doctor about it in 2012, they didn’t brush it off as I did. I was having trouble waking up in the mornings on weekdays, but still getting up at 2 AM on Saturdays. During the week, there was depression. “I have to go to work. I’ll just hit the snooze button for 15 more minutes.” Then I’d hit snooze again until I absolutely had to get up. On weekends it was the opposite. The doctors diagnosed me with a bunch of fun things, including obsessive-compulsive disorder.
As shitty as that is, it’s always why I have such a kickass music collection.
I’ve been trying to maintain more regular sleep hours, though I still wake up earlier on the weekends. I don’t like to wake up before 5 AM on a Saturday anymore. If I can’t sleep, I’ll get up for a short while, watch some YouTube until I’m tired, and go back to bed. Sometimes it takes a while to unwind but it’s been working.
Otherwise, on a “normal” Saturday morning you’ll usually find me at 5:30 or 6:00 AM with a coffee in one hand, music in my ears, and pounding out words on a keyboard. Sometimes Deke is awake, way up in Thunder Bay, and we’ll chat coffee and music.
Mornings are magical to me, much more so than late nights. Especially Sunday mornings. There is nobody up. I can go for my morning walk down the middle of King Street if I want to. I love going to get a coffee when the drive-thru is empty at 6 AM. I prefer getting things done in the morning before people are awake. I’ll do laundry or I’ll review a box set. It’s just somehow better before the city wakes.
Early mornings aren’t necessarily the best way, but with moderation it works for me. I’m most creative in the mornings, and I love the solitude. And my parents can sleep soundly in their house while I putter around mine!
GETTING MORE TALE #623: Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
Traditions change and evolve over the years as families do. I have always been excited about Christmas, going back my youngest days. I would be so excited I couldn’t sleep. Killing the days before Christmas was agonizing. I guess as kids we were a little spoiled.
Spoiled kids became spoiled teens. As I got older, I stopped asking for toys for Christmas. Music replaced them. Most of the time, I would circle titles that I saw in print ads. Stores like A&A Records and even the local Zellers had flyers with new releases and sale items. I remember the winter of 1986, circling two: Helix’s Long Way to Heaven, and Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Trilogy. I didn’t know much about Yngwie other than a few videos on TV. I circled both and I received both, on cassette. I recall listening to them on a pair of earphones at Grandma’s after Christmas dinner that year.
The following year, 1987, was the year of a couple pretty important albums. That Christmas I received Def Leppard’s Hysteria, and Whitesnake’s 1987. Hysteria quickly became the favourite. Its impact was immediate and that cassette kept me entertained for years. Whitesnake took more time to get into. It didn’t help that the cassette had speed issues. Similarly, the Helix and Yngwie tapes from the year before had the same drag problems that made them hard to listen to. Because of this, many albums that originally had quality problems on tape releases, I didn’t warm up to for many many years. It was hard to enjoy Whitesnake tunes like “Don’t Turn Away” when they were slow and warbly.
When I first began receiving tapes for Christmas, the mid-80s, we had a pretty routine Christmas schedule. There was no variation from year to year. We have a small family compared to others. Our celebrations always began on the 24th. My mom and dad would spend the morning preparing food and cleaning. My sister and I would be pains in the asses. Then my aunt and uncle from Stratford would come over around 2:00 and we’d exchange first gifts. My aunt and uncle always brought fun gifts. They would never, ever buy clothes for Christmas unless it was something we asked for. No socks, no undies, no shirts, no pants. Fun gifts only! Sometimes guitar strings, games, and sheet music. There would always be at least one tape for each of us.
After gifts were opened, my sister and I would go upstairs and play our new tapes. Sometimes, we’d have something a little bigger: a video tape. In 1991, my aunt and uncle gave me Faith No More’s You Fat Bastards. They had access to a cool store in Stratford that would special order anything. As my needs evolved, my aunt and uncle would typically buy me hard-to-find items. The Faith No More video was one such special order. That year, I ran downstairs to the spare VCR and fired up the live video. My other uncle came down to watch with me, but didn’t care too much for their cover of “War Pigs”. Admittedly, it’s pretty different.
The traditions didn’t change much as we got older. In the 90s, my buddy Peter would come over for Christmas Eve. And, my sister discovered wine. One of her rituals now is drinking her wine out of her special cup which we have dubbed the “Holy Grail”, due to its perceived similarity to the one that appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Usually, before she takes a sip, I make her say the line, “It certainly is the cup of the King of Kings…”
Our Christmas Eve dinner, which is my favourite, has remained unchanged in over 30 years. We do a beef, chicken and veggie fondue. We’ve only had a couple of injuries over the years, but table cloths were frequently destroyed. Today, my sister does the Christmas Eve entertaining, as my parents have retired from this duty. She’ll always have some Christmas music playing, though not the kind I like. We don’t run to listen to our gifts on headphones anymore. We had to grow up, a little bit.
Christmas Day was also special for us. When we were kids, I’d wake up my sister early in the morning to open presents. Now, we put on our winter boats, coats and hats and drive over, and usually quite late in the morning. More gifts are exchanged, and always more music. It’s interesting to look at the kinds of albums I received then compared to now. Back then, a multi-disc set was a big big deal. Now, a three disc set can be as little as $30, the same price as a double live CD then. I seem to get a lot of deluxe editions and box sets for Christmas now as if it’s no big deal!
My sister and I would exchange gifts, and we always got music for each other. She was really good at filling in gaps of my collections. Artists like Alice Cooper and Whitesnake had large discographies and I had very little. She would look at my tape collection, go to the mall and pick up one of the many I was missing. Whitesnake was an annual gift for several years in a row. This was cool because it was always going to be something I didn’t expect, because my sister didn’t buy this off of some list I made. It always came 100% from her own intuition.
After the parents’ house, we’re still not done. Time to see Grandma! She always makes me laugh. One year she wrote inside a card, “You can use your Christmas money to buy a CD record.” Aww!
There is one Christmas tradition that I don’t particularly enjoy, and it’s a more recent one. We call it the $10 Gift Game. Lots of families do the same thing. Everybody buys a generic gift worth about $10, wraps it, and puts it on a table. Then, everybody draws a number out of a hat. #1 goes first by picking a gift off the table. They then open that gift for everyone to get a look at. #2 goes next. #2 either picks a wrapped gift off the table, or steals the gift opened by #1. If #2 chooses to steal, then #1 must open a new gift. But #2 must remember, their gift can be stolen by #3, #4, #5, and so on.
Each round consists of the next number in line picking a gift from the table or stealing. It gets quite tedious in our family, because my mother really likes to drag things out. She will encourage people to steal, so that the victim must replace their gift by picking or stealing from someone else, and then the next victim must also replace their gift, and on and on each round goes. At the end of the game people usually just end up swapping to get the gift most suited to their needs. For example, my mother or sister always end up with the booze. It’s harder to settle on who gets the chocolates.
One year, in protest of the game, my gift was a bag of unwrapped nickles and pennies adding up to exactly $10.*
Yes, I can be a Christmas grump sometimes. As a non-drinking participant, sometimes things can get a little goofy for me. Also, my dad’s level of interest in the game is so minimal that someone basically has to play for him while he does something else! The game definitely has a short shelf-life for me.
We are a bit older today but still try to have fun with Christmas. My sister and I will be giving music to each other, I’m sure, as we have done just about every single year for 30 years. Usually, we will just sit around saying, “Remember that one Christmas when…?”
I sure do. Here is a list of my Top Ten Most Fun Christmas Gifts of All Time.
1978 – Star Wars X-Wing Fighter
1979 – Star Wars Millenium Falcon
1983 – Star Wars Jabba the Hutt playset
1984– GI Joe Killer W.H.A.L.E. Hovercraft
1985 – My first dual tape deck
1986 – GI Joe Cobra Terrordrome
1987 – The latest by Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Kiss and also Kim Mitchell’s Akimbo Alogo
1989 – My first CD player and my first CDs: Motley Crue – Dr. Feelgood, Whitesnake – Snakebite and Alice Cooper – Trash.
One more reblog for this season. Here’s an instalment of Getting More Tale (the sequel series toRecord Store Tales) about Christmas Eve in the glorious, wonderful period we knew as the 1980s. Feliz Navidad!
RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale #349: Christmas Eve
So here we are once again, Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, you were my favourite day of the entire year. It’s hard not to get excited about you, today in 2014. Christmas Eve, you were the center of everything, 30 years ago! Such a short but exciting day. Inevitably, relatives would start handing us colourfully wrapped boxes, the best ones saved for last. Then the ritual of steps: Shake the box. Give the card a cursory read and give it a toss. Rip the paper. Peer inside. 30 years ago, there would have been Star Wars figures inside. Perhaps my Jabba the Hutt gift set. An Atari game, possibly. I wasn’t into music that much until about 1985, when Kiss really opened my eyes.
Around that time, Christmas Eve changed a little bit, but only in a subtle way. Instead of racing downstairs to play our new Atari games, we would race upstairs to play our new cassette tapes! Some Helix, Kiss, or Twisted Sister would have been among the music received back then. We also would have received our fair share of GI Joe and Transformers toys. I remember the year I got the GI Joe Hovercraft from “Santa”! Oh boy. My dad won’t let me forget that one. I woke up at 1 in the morning to play with it. Yeah, the parents weren’t overly thrilled to be woken up by the noise at that hour. I just couldn’t stay asleep! Having a younger sister meant the whole Santa thing went on longer than its normal sell-by date, but I wasn’t complaining. It was a lot of fun.
I’m sure tonight won’t be that different. If I’m lucky, I will receive a CD or two from somebody who loves me. I won’t race anywhere to go and listen to it right away, but it will be just as appreciated. After I got older, got a job, and started buying people gifts with my own money, I’ve realized that it’s the giving that is so much more fun. I cannot wait to see the look on people’s faces, especially when forced to open my elaborately disguised surprises. That’s what I get a kick out of the most now.
This year, I wish each one of you all the best, and indeed a Merry, Merry Christmas. Whether you celebrate it or not, have a good day, eh? Be safe. Please drink responsibly, and please call a cab if you have been drinking. But that’s enough serious talk. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite Christmas videos (still unreleased on CD to this day), and some links to past Christmas posts. Enjoy! Ho ho ho!
Winger’s cool traditional / funky version of “Silent Night”!
Every year at this time I take a break from posting to spend a little more time relaxing with my family. Enjoy this final post before Christmas, and I’ll see you all again soon in a couple of days! Feliz Navidad!
RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale #349: Christmas Eve
So here we are once again, Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, you were my favourite day of the entire year. It’s hard not to get excited about you, today in 2014. Christmas Eve, you were the center of everything, 30 years ago! Such a short but exciting day. Inevitably, relatives would start handing us colourfully wrapped boxes, the best ones saved for last. Then the ritual of steps: Shake the box. Give the card a cursory read and give it a toss. Rip the paper. Peer inside. 30 years ago, there would have been Star Wars figures inside. Perhaps my Jabba the Hutt gift set. An Atari game, possibly. I wasn’t into music that much until about 1985, when Kiss really opened my eyes.
Around that time, Christmas Eve changed a little bit, but only in a subtle way. Instead of racing downstairs to play our new Atari games, we would race upstairs to play our new cassette tapes! Some Helix, Kiss, or Twisted Sister would have been among the music received back then. We also would have received our fair share of GI Joe and Transformers toys. I remember the year I got the GI Joe Hovercraft from “Santa”! Oh boy. My dad won’t let me forget that one. I woke up at 1 in the morning to play with it. Yeah, the parents weren’t overly thrilled to be woken up by the noise at that hour. I just couldn’t stay asleep! Having a younger sister meant the whole Santa thing went on longer than its normal sell-by date, but I wasn’t complaining. It was a lot of fun.
I’m sure tonight won’t be that different. If I’m lucky, I will receive a CD or two from somebody who loves me. I won’t race anywhere to go and listen to it right away, but it will be just as appreciated. After I got older, got a job, and started buying people gifts with my own money, I’ve realized that it’s the giving that is so much more fun. I cannot wait to see the look on people’s faces, especially when forced to open my elaborately disguised surprises. That’s what I get a kick out of the most now.
This year, I wish each one of you all the best, and indeed a Merry, Merry Christmas. Whether you celebrate it or not, have a good day, eh? Be safe. Please drink responsibly, and please call a cab if you have been drinking. But that’s enough serious talk. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite Christmas videos (still unreleased on CD to this day), and some links to past Christmas posts. Enjoy! Ho ho ho!
Winger’s cool traditional / funky version of “Silent Night”!
As you are aware, the original Record Store Tales are almost done. There are only a few sub-chapters left in Part 320: End of the Line. I believe that, taken as a body of work and not cherry-picking bits and pieces, that it is a story of human frailty but also human strength and survival. There are laughs, and there are tunes. Lots and lots of good tunes.
Even though the entire story is almost told, I will continue telling tales of life’s absurdities. These Post-Record Store Tales (if you will) are already being written and are ready to be rolled out! The title, as suggested by you, will be revealed soon.
I just needed a new mascot. I felt that the old GI Joe LeBrain had run his course. Finding a new mascot, a new LeBrain, was a bit of a quest but I’ve finally settled on one. May I present to you:
I decided to do something special for Part 250…by not doing Part 250 at all.
This isn’t one of those bullshit prequels, like when George Lucas says, “Oh, Episode I, I had that written for decades,” when it was pretty obvious he was making it up as he went along! Nope, this isn’t like that. I started writing the Record Store Tales over 10 years ago, and what you see below is the original first chapter. It existed solely for the purpose of background and context, but I excised it in favour of starting things faster with the second chapter,“Run To The Hills”. Since that became Part 1, it makes sense that this earlier introduction should be Part 0. With hindight, I kind of wished I’d kept it in, so here it is! And don’t forget to check out my new complete Table of Contents, should you wish to read more!
Yeah…don’t ask. That’s me on the right.
A Few Words for Days Gone By…
What is childhood made of? In my mind, when you’re a kid, life consists of two things:
1. School
2. Summer Holidays
That was the cycle. To break it down to the core, to an 11 year old life was 10 months of school followed by two months of glorious, warm sunny freedom. Sure, you’d get to go home at the end of the day, but you were never truly free until the end of June. No more pencils, no more books, all that stuff. It was way better than Christmas holidays. The Canadian winters offered such fun treats as shoveling, besides snow pants, parka, boots (laced up too tight), and mittens which prevented you from using your fingers.
Our summers were boisterous. My sister Kathryn and I were like peas in a pod. We would play some kind of game every day, usually under my leadership. I would declare that today, we were going to play Star Wars. Other possible declarations included building fleets of Lego ships and cars, and having a giant war. Or inventing a new ball game. Once GI Joe came along, we’d dig trenches in the yard, as well as forts and garages of twigs and leaves, and have an entire day (or week) dedicated to Cobra Commander’s new secret weapon. Aside from an occasional rebellion from my sister, our summers were mostly uninterrupted merriment.
My sister and I both clearly remember one such rebellion, where she wanted to do things her way. It involved our Star Wars figures. We were already mid-battle. I was setting up a perfect counter-offensive. The Millenium Falcon would sneak attack Vader’s base, take out his Tie Fighter early in the melee, while Luke would take out Boba Fett. Leia and Lando had to distract Jabba The Hutt, so that he couldn’t stop Luke when he eventually confronted the Emperor. Game over! The plan was perfect. Now I just needed my sister to coordinate the battle with me, under my command of course.
Much to my disappointment, she had moved around some of the figures and now had them seated. Luke and Vader were next to each other. “Why are Luke and Vader sitting there? Luke is about to attack and Vader should be getting into his ship.”
My sister continued playing with the figures, and without looking up, replied, “Luke and Vader want to be friends now. They’re having tea.”
It didn’t matter that half the figures were hers, if she didn’t know how to play Star Wars right. So I’d yell a bit, act like a big brother usually does, and eventually she’d go along with the plan, or cry and leave. The evil Empire would be defeated once and for all, thanks to my brilliant leadership and strategy. We were definitely pals, growing up.
For years, this was the way of the summer holidays. We’d be doing something awesome at home, or at the cottage, but it would always be something cool. It didn’t matter where we were: games continued wherever we went. We’d make a game out of anything. You give us a pile of junk and we’ll make a game out of it.
All things do come to an end. The Star Wars trilogy ended in 1983 and something needed to fill the vacuum. While GI Joe and later Transformers would temporarily take its place, I was getting older. My attention was drifting. I was looking for something cool, new, and exciting. Video games didn’t hold my attention and neither did sports.
Starting in 1983, several things happened in a short time frame. Styx released a single called “Mr. Roboto” that some of my friends at school were obsessed with. Then I heard a song called “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by AC/DC, and it was pretty cool too. Then, a newer band called Quiet Riot came out with an album called Metal Health that would go on to sell three million copies. This was my first rock cassette purchase when I was in the 6th grade. Something connected…
AC/DC. Van Halen. Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath. Def Leppard. Motley Crue. Iron Maiden. Who were these people? I had a lot to find out.
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