'E.T. the Extra-Terrestial'

My first exposure to E.T. was as a child, but it had nothing to do with watching the movie.

As far as I can remember, my aunt who lived in Dayton, Ohio had this pretty awesome basement-type gameroom. I call it a basement, but it was positioned, decorated and functioned as just another part of the house. As if the house were built as a three-story, but the second story is the one even with the door to the house.

It had lush, red, shag carpeting. Fancy-looking black furniture. A pool table. A large TV with Atari 2600 hooked up. A bathroom. And an inordinate amount of E.T. paraphernalia.

Stuffed animals, pillows, figurines, lunch boxes, posters -- I first remember seeing all of this at six, four years after the movie was released and another two or three before I actually watched it.

Honestly, E.T. kind of scared the shit out of me as a little kid, before I saw the movie. Aliens made me uneasy as a kid. In fact, I was pretty highly strung having worried about the economy, gangsta rap music and aliens. I don't know why.

Re-watching this film, several things pop out:

1. The amount of times Elliot screams. Christ. Get a grip. He's constantly screaming and yelling over every little thing that happens in his life.

2. The celebration of the bicycle. I assume that in the 1920s, kids took great pride in their bicycles. However, some time in the 1980s, bicycle envy and coolness became a huge thing. Owning a 10-speed was hot shit. BMX was huge. Huffy was OK when you were younger. Performing wheelies and making homemade ramps were what you did as a kid in the 1980s.

I blame E.T. Or it had a huge part in making the bicycle a status symbol instead of a way to get around.