How We Played Star Wars In The 70's And 80's

Neil Baghurst takes us back to vintage days of the 70's and 80's and how we played Star Wars as a child.

The playground was filled with the chaotic and lively chatter of children knowing the last day of school had arrived.  The summer sun brushed through the clouds casting long shadows on a row of children standing on a pale gray gravel yard.  With military precision a group of children were lined up against a faded half way line.  Their attention directed to a swirling group of children running towards them, their arms out at their sides.  They were the X-wing fighters and the group on the line, I included, made up the death star defense.

As the X-wings hurtled forward, the first three kids in my line broke off, they were Ti-fighters and they flew spinning and screaming towards the swarm of X-wings. I was a lowly storm trooper and all I could do was to hold my line and toot out a blaster noise. As I helplessly watched the X-wing fighters skillfully side step the Ti-Fighters and make their way to the penalty spot which stood in for death stars reactor-ports. 

These were my first memories of Star Wars and none of us playing had actually seen the film yet, apart from snippets on TV, but this was enough to power our imaginations.  It was if Lucas had somehow managed to put the film in the food and water, it was everywhere. It was shortly after the end of school that my father took me to see the film. After coming out of the cinema my childhood DNA had a new chromosome called Star Wars.  When it came to making up games Star Wars was weather proof.  On summer days we could relive the battle of Endor (although no one would play an Ewoks), if we had snow we could recreate the battle of Hoth.  Our biggest argument was on who would play Han Solo and absolutely nobody wanted to be Obi-Wan, but we always use to find one strange kid who would play R2D2. On rainy days there were the toys ( AT AT was my fav) and of course the VHS tapes.

Each filmed seems to mirror my growth, as a 5 year old the first Star Wars had a sense of adventure and innocence, but my growing adolescence was sucker punched by the second and the playground was shocked by the rumor that Luke’s hand was cut off. But I was far more traumatized by Han Solo being carbon frozen. I repeated the act many times with my own Han Solo using the freezer and a tray of water.  With the cynicism of the sequels and much parodied Luke I’m your father, people forget what it was like to witness Empire for the first time. It was epic from beginning to end and the pacing of the final act with Luke and Vader has never been bettered in Cinema history. 

After Empire Jedi was almost cathartic, Star Wars had arched my childhood and my toy playing days were closing in, I think the Speeder bike was the last toy I bought, before ZX spectrum games took over.

For those who were not born into the Star Wars it’s hard to describe what it was like. In 1976 the top grossing film was Rocky and a bad remake of King Kong, clearly a man in a suit. For kids toys the best you could look forward to was an Airfix spitfire. But Star Wars created a tidal wave so big across popular culture it was as if the moon itself had crashed into the ocean.  But the key word to Star Wars was wonder and it fired everyone’s imagination. In 1997 the ripples were still strong and I remember like yesterday going with my brother to Cardiff to see the special edition of New Hope and reliving the destruction of the death star.

In 1977 Lucas found some stardust and with it he lit a fire that still burn’s brightly today,  and in around two years’ time I will be sitting in a darkened cinema with my then 7 year old son hoping it will warm his childhood just as much it did mine.

Writing for The Bearded Trio - Neil Baghurst.

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