...and protection!

He has Stormtroopers for that!

If only Darth Vader could be protected from George Lucas's tinkering.

The Force can't help him there.

Nah, not my type.

I'm always amazed by the influence Star Wars had on so many of you. It's because I was an adult (well, that's questionable, even now) when it all started, so I'd have to be a loser to be that affected by it. That's not me talking. Everyone felt that way about "hangers on." Star Trek (on TV--- B & W TV!) was from when I was a teen, and we went nuts for it, but we had all gotten over it years before it became a film franchise. People (guys) who didn't get over it by end of summer vacation, 1968--those are the losers I'm takin' 'bout.

There doesn't seen to be an over-riding cultural phenomenon that all-coloring from my childhood. Most of the 'iconic" TV shows from the mid 60's lasted 2 or 3 seasons (like Star Trek), so we were always on to something else. We were the first children raised with television, so "on to something else" was the post-War attitude of, well, everyone (the REAL Mad Men). I will say that the British Invasion was a HUGE distraction. So were movies (no cable, no VCR). Films were rarely franchised back then, short of the few "007" sorts of things. Movies didn't have numerals, Arabic or Roman, after their titles, unless it was to confuse you, like "Butterfield 8" or "8 1/2." If the screenplay were original, that was OK. If it had been a book, and you had read it, it was uncool to see the movie, sort of like, "We have a televsion, but we only watch PBS."

So many writers changed everything for all of us, Ken Kesey, Burroughs, ... I was going to continue the list, but I realized I'd be naming authors that you may have been forced to read in high school or college that were newly published when we read them...ow.

It's interesting to see the lasting impact that your own decade's pop culture left on you. It's definitely different from ours.

The weirdest thing is that so much of the music has remained as part of the culture. I didn't listen to anything at all that my parents did. None of us did, well, except for that weird Kenny Finn who only bought marching band records and ended up in the Air Force. Now, I see my friends of 40 years loaning out their 60's and 70's vinyl to their teenage grandkids (OK, sons). Some if it hasn't been seen in years, because their young adult kids "accidently" packed those Zep records when they moved out after college 20 years ago.

We never expected it to work out this way. I've though about it for a couple of decades and still can't decide whether it's cool or creepy.

I know, this shoulda been in another thread, but it's only "Got Wood." It's not like this thread is sacred to anyone who isn't from Easter Island or hasn't failed all current ED treatments.

Cool photo. Can't remember the name of the photogapher, but that was a famous LIFE or LOOK magazine image shot in post-War (there it is again) Italy.

The photographers name would be Orkin, making the girl in the picture the... and still not my type.

American Girl In Italy was the title.

Ah, thanks for reminding me, Bob. Guess I do need to get that shop vac before i start. Gonna be raining this weekend anyway, rats.

Is it just me or does the guy on the scooter have a giant head?