The older generation of Star Wars fans, who first caught a glimpse of Episode IV in theaters, reminisce on Star Wars both old and new. From timesunion.com:

Jeff Teolis first came to "Star Wars'' as the result of a vision. The inspiration for that vision was a simple poster, which he and some high school buds saw in the Cine 1-2-3-4-5-6 in Colonie in May 1977. "All it said was 'Star Wars.' We had no clue (what it was),'' Teolis says today. "And we forgot about it.''

Well, not quite. When the Columbia High School junior was taking his English Regents exam two days before the film's Capital Region premiere, 25 years ago, he had this vision:

He would be the first person in line to see the movie. He had to be. Why? The sci-fi fan couldn't explain the urge then. Still can't. "We finally figured out it had something to do with The Force,'' he says.

Teolis got to the theater at 9:15 a.m. on June 22, 1977, well before the noon showing. Theater manager Phil Garvey gave him a T-shirt and some buttons (Teolis still has them). Armed with a "Star Wars'' paperback, he bided his time, as more than 550 people lined up behind him. About 250 would be turned away from that first showing.

It wasn't just kids and teens there that day in Colonie. Somewhere behind Teolis was Carl Siebels, now a 51-year-old real estate manager from Troy.

"I went to a noon matinee and waited in line with 350 other people, mostly men my age ... trying to recapture their youth,'' Siebels says. "After I saw it the first time, I thought, 'When can I see it again, and do I have time to see it again today?' So I went back and saw it again the next day.''

Teolis, now a 42-year-old mortgage attorney living in Clinton, Conn., plans to see "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones'' (opening nationwide Thursday). Just don't expect him to be first in line, or even there the first night. Those days are gone. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,'' he says.

Signposts of life: Mike Putnam swears he's not a "Star Wars'' geek. Fan, yes, but not a zealot. Ignore the Death Star model somewhere in his parents' Ballston Spa home. Ignore the $80 Darth Vader mask he has at work. It was a gift. Honest.

But the Ballston Spa man will take his 12-year-old son, Cody, to see "Clones.'' Putnam's dad took him to the see the original (now redubbed "Episode IV: A New Hope'') in the Northway Mall all those years ago, just like Putnam took Cody to see the rereleased original and, three years ago, "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace.''

"It's a legacy,'' the 34-year-old Kinko's employee says of the movie series. "You have to see how it turns out.''

For more, visit the link above. Thanks to Adam Lenhardt for the heads up.