A Long Time Ago: Growing Up With And Out Of Star Wars [Kindle Edition]

To the Author-thanks for writing this memoir. It was a fun ride that anyone in their late 30s or 40s who grew up with the Star Wars experience should read. I found myself laughing out loud and connecting with so much of it... the response to seeing Biggs in the Star Wars Storybook, but having no memory of him in the movie, etc. The action figure rollout and wondering why Kenner made some figures and not others... the special weapons for certain figures... and what else was going on during the years in between and right after the original movies.
Recommended read for sure. I hope some of my friends will pick this up and read it so we can discuss and relive our own personal moments!

I fall into that category of the lucky Star Wars fan. I was 6 years old in 1977 when the the movie came out, and the prime ages of 7-8 for the toy bonanza between SW and ESB. The passage of time hasn't been the kindest for my own recollection of my childhood, and many of my memories of Star Wars back then are snippets that I either remember distinctly, or remain hazy to this day. However, it's books like Gib van Ert's 'A Long Time Ago: Growing up with and out of Star Wars" that jar those bits of memory that have remained tucked away, waiting for that impetus to be recalled to my consciousness. Gib so accurately captures the nostalgia of making the trip with our moms to the one store that seemed to have THE definitive action figure inventory, the confusion around images in the storybook that weren't in the film, and devising the wildest theories as to what it all meant. His experiences with the excitement around the releases of ESB and ROTJ were no doubt eerily similar to those of every other kid going through elementary school. We all eventually grew up however, became more interested in girls and sports than our action figures, and subsequently packed away the toys for goods, or in some our cases, threw them out. What I didn't expect from this book was the little tug of emotion I felt as the author boxed his away and moved on. Gib's disappointment with the prequels is spot on with my own, and very accurately depicts the opposite in which, as adults, Star Wars had become part of our lives. We lived and breathed it as children, but merely watched it in our older years. The original trilogy era was a time that to varying degrees left an indelible mark on our lives. Now as a 41 year old with my own 6 year old daughter, I'm excited to be able to take her to see new Star Wars films in the coming years. I can only hope she recalls her own experiences better than my own, or that she has books like Gib van Ert's to help her relive hers.

For guys of a certain age (and the women who would like to understand them) this is a great book. It kind of blew me away with how, though we came from very different places geographically and from very different backgrounds & families, we shared many of the same experiences when it came to Star Wars movies, toys, collectibles, and the dreaded "Prequels". Though it is presented as a personal memoir, it could easily be any of our stories. We all embraced the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars - some more tightly than others - but we did, and it's not something that can easily be let go of. It effected our lives, flavored our childhoods, and (for many of us) still impacts our adulthood.

This is a very well written book - even if it is a bit on the short side - and I highly recommend it.