Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Star Wars and War Games

30 years. I can't believe I have memories that are 30 years old.

Geoff is kinda scary with the computer - figuring out stuff that no kid should know. For years we have joked with Geoff that someday the FBI would come looking for him, just like in the movie War Games. AMC channel is celebrating the 25th anniversary of War Games and we are watching it with Geoff for the first time. We watched an adolescent Matthew Broderick play a "game" with WOPR and almost initiate WW III. He gasps when he sees the "cool" TRS-80 set up at NORAD. WOW! I used a TRS-80, but I couldn't get it to play any games.

But in 1983 Brad knew all about the Comodore 64. It was the beginning of the pc. (I honestly never imagined what they would be good for!) And now we have Geoff who knows all about HTML and servers and networks.

In third grade (30 - yep, 30 years ago) I remember all of the boys had Star Wars t-shirts. And Star Wars lunch boxes. And little plastic R2D2s. And now Danny knows all 6 Star Wars movies by heart and he uses legos to build jet-wing fighters with an ejection compartment for R2D2.

I am grateful for these connections from our childhoods to our children's lives. We enjoy our memories and the boys have a frame of reference to understand the past. We see a little piece of our life experience passed down to another generation. Maybe someday they will tell their kids about Star Wars or My Space and their children will understand what was wonderful and exciting about them.

Do you share any childhood experiences with this generation? I'd love to hear!

1 comment:

Sharon said...

I totally remember War Games. Who could forget words like "Global Thermonuclear Warfare" and "would you like to play a game?" My husband just read a book last year about Commodore. How about those Trash 80 machines in the G&T room. *grin*