The First Time

[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]

Originally Posted by Prudence

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.