The most important part of the Star Wars phenomenon to my generation was not the films themselves, but the folk art we made of Lucas and Hasbro's ubiquitous merchandise. The toys and clothing became both social indentifier, and a means for children to build and communicate their own personal myths. I believe this is why the films have had such a unique influence. They are not just of our childhood, they ARE our childhood.
flickr has a great slideshow called Growing Up Star Wars where you can find even more of these great photos. Beyond the poor execution of the latest trilogy, I don't think they ever could have met the near extraordinary expectations we had for it based on our lives. The new Star Wars films gave us just the films themselves. We did not identify as readily with these protagonists as ourselves because we were too old to ask Santa for a Jar Jar Binks (ok-most of us were). Which is why I thought Lucas' best bet was to make an adult trilogy. We all know that didn't happen.
Enjoy these photos, which harken back to better days-when men were men, and women wore hair earmuffs.
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