The First Time

[Kevy Baby]

No, not that...

I watched a documentary on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album over the weekend (and I am listening to Money on the radio right now). One of the things that David Gilmore expressed was that he wishes he could put on a pair of headphones and listen to DSotM for the very first time. This is a sentiment that I have heard on various topics in my life.

And I think it makes for an interesting discussion. If you could have just one thing in your life that you got to experience again for the very first time, what would it be? One thing that would be completely erased from your memory so that you could experience the wonder, joy, or whatever of that very first time. Your first kiss? The first time visiting Disneyland?

Ironically, I don't have my own first one as there are so many things I would like to re-experience for the first time. I WOULD love to experience DSotM for the first time, but I don't think I would want to use my "one and only" on this.

What about you?

[Disneyphile]

My first visit to Club 33. The photos from that visit tell all, especially with my eyes the size of boulders, filled with excitement.

I think it was the geekiest moment I've ever had. I can hardly even remember it, because I was so trancelike.

[Gemini Cricket]

Well, I actually have never listened to Dark Side of the Moon. So, maybe we should have some sort of Kevy Baby PF swanking where we listen to it while watching the Wizard of Oz or something...

My first kiss was in pre-school. Carrie-Ann. What a whore she was. We kissed under a monkey pod tree.

My first wink-wink nudge-nudge was at the Anaheim Hilton early on in college. It was a wonderful night.

My first trip to Disneyland was June 21, 1981. I was 10.

I'd like to experience all again.

[Kevy Baby]

Well, I actually have never listened to Dark Side of the Moon. So, maybe we should have some sort of Kevy Baby PF swanking where we listen to it while watching the Wizard of Oz or something...The first DSotM should be a stand-alone experience. Add it to WoZ later.

[CoasterMatt]

Hey GC, what are you up to Saturday evening?

[Deebs]

I can't choose just one thing. Can I still play?

Looking at and holding my daughter for the first time in the hospital. I have never seen such an old soul in a baby's body. She looked completely at peace, like she didn't even need me. (Still acts like that, actually). It was an extraordinary moment.

Holding my son for the first time. He was the opposite of my daughter, very vulnerable.

Being loved and adored again, by the person I love most in the world.

[BDBopper]

My first and only trip to Disneyland when I was 4 - December 26th 1986. That has to stand out as one of my greatest days. I didn't ride very muich of anything because of the lines it was the magic and atmosphere. Disney was my first love and here I was where Walt's dream came true. But of course at that young age I wasn't that sentimental...it was where Mickey Mouse lived. Sicne then I have waxed nostalgic and put it on a pedestal.

You said Kevy that this moment is one you would want erased from your memory. Well I was so young and the fact that I haven't been back since that date so another visit would be like doing it again fro the first time. But even better is the fact that I will be doing it this time in the presence of my friends who, like me, understand the true significance of the wonder and magic of the Happiest Place On Earth!

RECORD SCRATCH!

Okay you're probably sick of me with all this gooey mushy dribble. I'll stop now.

[Alex]

I've never listened to Dark Side of the Moon (the few Pink Floyd songs I can think of I'm not sure what album they're from) so I wouldn't have to waste my one on that.

Part of my general emotional temperance is that I am rarely wowed and/or overwhelmed by an experience. Though I do grow bored easily with any repeated experience.

For me the greatest thrill in life is quite literally being somewhere I've never been before. I get a certain happiness from taking an unusual turn on my way to Safeway and realizing I've never driven down that street before. And I was just expressing my regret to Lani last weekend that one reason the day-trip drives we used to love doing have dwindled in recent years is that it is very hard for me to find a three to six hour drive we haven't done before and the novelty is important to my enjoyment of a drive.

So I'd probably use mine to somehow try to restore pleasure at seeing some particular place for the first time again. All of Alaska, the Florida keys, the food stalls in Singapore. Something like that.

[Prudence]

Would I re-experience this event with my contemporary knowledge or with the knowledge I had the original first time?

I'd love to experience walking past Elizabeth I's monument in Westminster Abbey again. Or the first time I found kittens in the haymow on my grandparents' farm.

[BDBopper]

Would I re-experience this event with my contemporary knowledge or with the knowledge I had the original first time?

That's a very good question. The events that went in my mind...some of the memories were affected by contemporary knowledge...like the one I used in my previous post.

[lashbear]

As soon as I get home I'll post my first DL visit date - that was the biggest moment in my life.

No, really.

...CLOSE second was my first date with Stoat. We explored the old disused train tunnels under Sydney with the Railway Historical Society. He ruined his boots, we fell in love.

[innerSpaceman]

I think it's quite different to pick a first life experience vs. the first experience of some work of art.

There are far too many life experiences I cherish enough to want to experience virginally again. Art works would be easier.


Heheh, we were once playing a game where we took turns saying which moment in history we would return to if we could. One geek friend of mine got a big laugh by choosing the opening night of Star Wars.

But my first experience of Star Wars when I was 17 would be high on my virgin re-play list. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, too. My first Disneyland visit, naturally. And Dark Side of the Moon would indeed be in my top ten. Heheh, for that matter, so would my first viewing of The Wizard of Oz.

[Gemini Cricket]

I'd love to experience walking past Elizabeth I's monument in Westminster Abbey again.
Ooh. That's a good one. I did that the last time I was in London. I even broke a rule and touched her arm.
:)

[CoasterMatt]

My first ride on the Coney Island Cyclone - I was 7, and there were only 4 people on the train. I had already been on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Colossus at Magic Mountain - but this was a legend, a ride that scared my grandfather. That was a defining moment in my coaster craziness.

[Disneyphile]

I'd also like to relive the ride on GRR with Ken on the day we met. We got so soaked and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

[NickO'Time]

My first visit too Disneyland when my parents were in their 5th year of marriage and where we actually alldid something together without conflict. That was July 1976.

The first time winning a Criterium in cycling in Sacramento in 90'- I knew then that I would pursue it.

Knott's Berry Farm in the 70's and seeing Independence Hall. Cedar Fair sucks.

Seeing the area where "Operation Market-Garden" (WWII) took place in Arnhem and Oosterbeek area of the Netherlands after seeing the film the few months later. A Bridge To Far should have been renamed a "Bridge to Many"

Van Halen's-I'll Wait. Love older Van Halen, not Hagar.

[blueerica]

I had to think about it pretty hard, because I'm not really sure I need to experience things again for the first time. For the most part, I believe it's the tiny details I've appreciated all along, the wonderment, excitement of the new. But, if I could do it differently, not that I would for I would have to forego an important piece of my childhood, but...

I'd love to see Disneyland through the eyes of a 5 or 6 year old. Since pretty much everyone on my mom's side of the family has been employed by the mouse, I've been going there since I was a newborn, several times a year. Nothing ever felt 'new,' with the exception of new rides, and even then I've become fairly jaded about the experience. Many new rides were introduced when I was a sarcastic teen who'd been to the park way too many times for her own good. The closest I've felt to newness and excitement as a child was Splash Mountain.

That said, I wouldn't change a thing, since I know it's how my family bonded with me when I was younger. With their then-meager funds, it was a way they could dote on the only grandchild and spend quality time in a place they were intimately familiar with.

Other than that, it's hard to say. I'd love to go back and read Harry Potter with new eyes. Same for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except the reading would be watching and what-not. I'd like to watch cartoons in the same feverish way I did as a child, but I suppose that just shows that I'm weary of adulthood, not so much that I'd want to go back, though. I'll tell you what, though, I will pass on going back to the First Time of all First Times... Yeesh!

[LSPoorEeyorick]

I hadn't been feeling well enough to string a thoughtful post together, but I've been meaning to say that this is a swell thread.

I wasn't quite sure what to post. Erica's Potter mention reminded me that I felt quite sad partway through the last book that I'd never have a weekend where I went with my best Potter pals (rotated a bit but EH was the constant)... putting on our striped scarves and standing in line, getting our picture taken with the Potter standee, eagerly and voraciously reading through, meeting afterwards at our favorite diner to rehash over hash... If I had to pick only on the merits of the book, it'd probably be Azkaban, but since I read that before our release-day tradition began, I'm not sure what I'd choose.

For personal triumph, I'd relive the opening night of my senior thesis. Theater school was a bit of a struggle; I was the only director in my class who made it through to graduation. And this was despite having a conflict with my original advisor, who dropped me when I missed a class after our neighbors were involved in a murder-suicide. I was often alone, in class and otherwise since the departments bonded with each other (designers with designers, actors with actors) and nobody else was in my class. And I was annoyed with the whole theater "scene" - I'm sure you generally know, but some actors can be really self-centered, and really false. I spent my time mostly outside of the school with a student Shakespeare company I was running, mostly populated with non-theater-majors. But they were fun, and passionate, and in many cases just as good or better than my actor classmates. Senior year, after much arm-wrestling with my thesis committee, I was granted permission to cast two of my non-theater-major company members in the four-woman play that was my directing thesis. We worked hard, and it turned out... well, it turned out exactly as I wanted it to. And opening night, I had the support of my parents, my Shakespeare company friends, even my high school theater teacher. And also in attendance was the entirety of my theater school, and the advisor who so quickly gave up on me because of my "emotions." They all watched, and they all erupted into loud cheers when it concluded. My old advisor pretty much ate his hat - or at least his words - and said that I surely had a future in directing. It was probably the moment I've felt most successful in my life. And, sadly, it was the last time I directed a play. Because I got through all of this despite the fact that I had just left an abusive relationship; when the show was over, I sunk into the depression that led me to Los Angeles, where I never got into the theater scene. So in going back, I would like to reclaim that momentum I had in college. Funnel it toward my screenwriting and film directing. Remember the potential that I have, frankly, yet to fulfill.

And in the realm of love... well, my first date with Tom was great, but it was the second date where we completely took leave of our senses; I'd love to go back to that day for the humor of it, but honestly, I'm not sure we've really regained our senses since we've met. As recently as last night we had trouble parting when Tom went upstairs to bed and I stayed downstairs to sleep upright (sinus infections suck.) We're still deliberating at the end of the night just like our second date. "I don't want to go..." "I don't want you to go..."

[Morrigoon]

I'd like to re-experience Disneyland's 50th. Specifically, park entry.

[katiesue]

I’d have to say the night that would become known as Bloody Friday (we even had shirts made). It was one of those endless summer nights in High School where so much seemed to happen. And not to change the outcome of anything, but just relive it.

Where to begin – it was the fair, Monica was drunk on ½ beer, ran into exes, avoiding football coaches, loosing Janet, finding Janet, leaving Monica with her brother Matt, sneaking out, Rocky’s house, Janet & Rob running around in the street naked bursting into the garage, hot tub, Rob’s ability to put on 501’s inside out and button them up without noticing, the rescue squad, John flipping on all the lights, Janet lost her favorite bra, and of course much more.

Oh and I hit a pole backing up with the car. And we found out the next day that Monica had ditched Matt and her poor Ex Barry had to baby-sit her all night.

[innerSpaceman]

OMG, why didnt' I know you then?? :D

[bewitched]

Probably because you mentinoed Pink Floyd...

I'd have to say I would love to reexperience my first U2 concert in '82. Or maybe my one and only Simon and Garfunkle concert...

[€uroMeinke]

I’m not sure what I’d really like to re-experience for the first time. I mean most of the things that come to mind I still continue to enjoy as fond memories. And some I have to wonder if by being memories they are somewhat softened and enhanced – so that the actual re-experiencing might prove disappointing?

There are plenty of “firsts” I have yet to experience, the city of Prague, or Istanbul, my first book being published (heh, or even written), my first trip into space, or my first million. To be sure, I’ve had some awesome firsts – the plane door opening in Iquitos flooding the cabin with the jungles dense vegetative air, Walking East Berlin after the wall had fallen and seeing a place frozen in time.

But for me, the best firsts were always unexpected and accidental - ones that surprised me – the sounds of the jungle, the majesty of the Yosemite Valley as you emerge from the tunnel, the taste of home made pesto having never had pesto before, the softness of another’s pubic hair, the passionate insanity of first love. They were all spectacular, and I don’t feel any lacking for only experiencing them for the first time once, because even as I write and remember, I feel I’ve just experienced them again.

[Not Afraid]

Our first trip to Paris would be a wonderful thing to experience again.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

My first date with GD...that was exhilarating.

Star Wars, because it's something I don't remember experiencing the first time. I absorbed that trilogy growing up. I'd probably rewind my brain to 10 years old for that event, too.

There was that amazing moment at the Academic Decathlon dinner where they announced that I had gotten the best score on my team, beating our school valedictorian. I was a C student, no one expected it. My parents were there, which was a big deal since they pretty much never made it out to things for me. I had never felt that proud before.

[innerSpaceman]

Probably because you mentinoed Pink Floyd...

I'd have to say I would love to reexperience my first U2 concert in '82. Or maybe my one and only Simon and Garfunkle concert...

Oh, can we re-experience something differently?

Because, if so ... I'd like to re-do that Pink Floyd concert at the Rose Bowl ... and not eat so many mushrooms .... and not take all my clothes off.

[Gemini Cricket]

I'd like to re-experience the Oct 2nd, 2007 Dave Matthews Band concert. It was heavenly.
:)

[frodo potter]

Lord of the Rings, who would have guessed.

That first reading really spoke to me and helped shape many of my interests to this day and though I have read the book many times in the years between I have never had the same joy in it that I found that first time.

[Gn2Dlnd]

The first experiences of things I've come to love, weren't necessarily singular events. I still love and find new things in books like Tom Sawyer and Alice in Wonderland. I still love, love, LOVE, Judy Garland in A Star Is Born. A good ribeye steak still sends me to heaven.
Of the few things I continue to enjoy, but not with the same gobsmacking joyous tearfulness of the first time, are: Snow on Main Street, Remember, and Fantasmic. My first Space Mountain and Star Tours were pretty amazing as well. I'd love to re-experience my first rides on Pirates and Mansion, if only to have my Pirates and Mansion back. Most of all, I'd love to have my first Carousel of Progress experience again, complete with the City of the Future at the end!

Of course, my first "first time" was an amazing experience as well. That would be fun to do again!

[Capt Jack]

seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn in concert for the first time. nautilus pavilion at sea world of all places.



I got the chance to see him many times after that...always a fantastic show, but something about that show that was well beyond the beyond. Stevie was just freshly sobered up and clean. it showed. he was dead on and having an absolute blast. the crowd was a complete over the top party and he played an extra hour and a half just cuz he wanted to. sharing the stage with The Fabulous Thunderbirds (SRV's brothers band), everyone there seemed to know it was something special. Ive never seen anyone put so much of themselves into a single performance, before or since.

4th row center....cost me an arm and a leg for those tix. I'd pay 100x that now.

[Kevy Baby]

seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn in concert for the first time. nautilus pavilion at sea world of all places.I would loved to have seen him in concert at all - never got that joy.

[NickO'Time]

Stevie Ray Vaughn would be the tops!

I feel like a heel for not saying this. My daughter's birth. Greatest moment ever!
She is such a delight.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

4th row center....cost me an arm and a leg for those tix. I'd pay 100x that now.

Oh. God. I apologize in advance for this.

That's pretty steep. What 50 people are you going to turn into paraplegics for this?

[BDBopper]

seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn in concert for the first time. nautilus pavilion at sea world of all places.

Wow. One of my favorite artists! Too bad we lost him too early. :(

[GusGus]

Disneyland's 50th

The whole day was just perfect. Being right up front when the gates opened. Everything looking shiny and new. Getting free stuff. The park being so crowded, yet everyone seemed to know where they were going and it wasn't difficult to move around. And then the fireworks! WOW! They really blew me away! The whole day I felt like a child again and everything was new and adventurous. And the best part was that I experienced it with some of the best people in the world.