I remember well the year 1977. Back then, gasoline was 65 cents a gallon, and the first Apple computers went on sale. Jimmy Carter was elected president, and Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown. ABBA was singing about a Dancing Queen and the whole country spent Thursday evenings with a family named the Waltons. Goodnight, Elizabeth … Goodnight, John-Boy … Goodnight, Jim-Bob.

But there was something even more special about 1977 than low gas prices and snappy tunes. I’m talking about the release of the first “Star Wars” movie in May of that year.

Beginning with the opening crawl that explained the back story of the film, audiences sat mesmerized by a realm filled with droids and tractor beams and ionization blasters. Suddenly we began our anecdotes with, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” and sent our farewells to friends with the encouragement, “May the Force be with you.”