Droids Escape (17)
Last Updated (Friday, 09 July 2010 21:58) Written by Administrator Wednesday, 07 July 2010 00:00
Apparently the fighting is still raging on. Or perhaps the urge to kill another rebel was irresistible. Such a sweet boy. See the stuck-in trading card?
Nostalgia: Trading Cards
Wax wrapper. I pasted this design onto my bedside clock's face. I couldn't throw away anything!
Those chewing gum cards were just pure magic you know? On the way home from school in the village, John S and I would drop into the sweet shops - if we had any coins at all. It might be old poor-sighted Mrs. Whelan's small shop beside the church, where the rougher boys would con her by giving her pennies instead of tuppences; or Fleming's which was the closest we had to a supermarket; or the tiniest very old fashioned one with Davis painted over the window.
Davis's was indeed tiny and dim, and had a high hardwood counter with its own sliding window if memory serves. For a couple of pennies you were handed this lovely little wax-paper packet. It smelled of glossy-print and gum. We'd open up our packets and see what cards were inside. John S. and I would trawl our mental gallery as we excitedly but thoughtfully chewed the gum walking down Barrack Street, checking if we already had them at home, then we'd compare each other's new treasures to see if swaps could be done. We'd also trawl our memory banks for Francis O's, and Niall F's cards. Negotiations might commence next morning in the playground after some phone calls that evening.
It's amazing what an impact these little new-smelling nuggets of Star Wars had on us in this small, old fashioned and remote Kildare village in grey 1977. George Lucas himself came from a small town in the middle of nowhere. These cards felt as if they'd come straight across the Pacific from Hollywood. In actual fact they were probably printed in Italy - by anyone that'd do them cheapest.
Warning to Nerds: Look Away Now
Above: Some of mine - sellotaped into a foolscap pad. Eek!
On the back of the cards you'd either get a piece of a jigsaw puzzle (Chewbacca) or some fascinating film facts. Like how blue screen was used, how Lucas edited together old B&W war movie dog-fight footage to work out the Last Battle scene, how Carrie Fisher was the daughter of famous celebrities, how the lightsabres had a paint that "reflected natural light up to 1000 times more brightly"... My mum had to tell me who Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were, but I still don't know how they did those lightsabres.
All pure magic though. What an escape from 1970s rural Ireland. I stuck all of my cards onto a crappy ruled foolscap pad with sellotape, and would you believe I still have it! These cards must be worth... sod all. Do you know that they sell not only the cards on eBay but even those wax wrappers?
I wonder if they do the gum too?
On Friday: Stunning Princess Leia
Comments
Do you think Colonel Kurtz in 'Apocalypse Now' was named after Gary Kurtz? A.N. was - believe it or not - originally a G.Lucas concept, passed on to his friend Coppola.
Also, your blog about the nostalgia of collecting those old trading cards along with the stick of gum brings back my own memories... and the smell of that gum.
