Star Wars and Our Wars
Forty two years ago, my best friend in high school Jon Chack and I went to the movie theater at White Flint Mall to see Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars: The New Hope ). The movie had been out for months, so the print was rather scratchy from incessant viewings. But we sort of liked it, though I recall liking my old Star Trek reruns better. The movie theater as well as most of White Flint Mall has closed down. Grass and small trees grow in the cracks in the asphalt parking lot, with only a determined branch of Lord and Taylor clinging to existence there. Jon and I drifted apart over the decades though we caught up as many old friends do a couple years ago but, as many old friends do, drifted apart again. Star Wars, on the other hand, has done much better than White Flint Mall. Robin and I went to see the Rise of Skywalker at the Uptown Theater in DC with reserved seats--gone are the lines snaking around the block waiting to get in, where you'd eat a slice of Vace pizza