24 Hours On A Sidewalk

It feels like a lifetime ago.

As a kid, or even a teenager, I wasn't big into the concert scene. I never even went to one until after I graduated high school. Because of this, I had never personally experienced the "joy" of sitting on a sidewalk for twenty-four hours with a bunch of random strangers, anxiously waiting for the ticket booth to open.

This all changed in May of 1999. May 11th to be exact. One week prior to its theater release on May 19th, 1999, tickets for the most highly anticipated film of all time would go on sale. Tickets for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

I took the two days off and made my way to the local theater where I found five to seven people already in line. It was broad daylight, and the theater had just opened for the day. The twenty-four hour clock had official begun ticking.

Because I had never camped out for tickets before, I really had no clue what I was in for. Nor was I necessarily prepared for it. I had two friends in tow with me and a blanket, but no food, water, or a plan for going to the bathroom. I believe the gamers would call that a, "NOOB".

As we sat on the sidewalk, we did what others who slowly formed behind us throughout the day did. We introduced ourselves to our closest comrades, forming little cliques for bathroom breaks and food runs, as well as, got more acquainted on a personal level. At this point in time, I really don't remember any of the names of the people I spoke to, or necessarily their stories. However, there were two individuals who stood out among them all. More on that below.

With evening slowly creeping up on us, more people joined the line, with all the more coming as darkness finally took over the night sky. People coming in and out of the theater would, for the most part, go about their business. While a select few would take a few second to make comments, positive or negative about us geeks standing on the sidewalk. We were undeterred.

The night seemed to pass slowly, but nobody seemed to mind. We busied ourselves in conversations, while others futilely attempted to sleep. Between the noise and self excitement, sleep didn't last longer than an hour or two - If even.

Somewhere around three AM, things ground to a halt. The energy level of people dropped and saggy eyes started filling the crowd. It was as of this point that time also began to crawl by. Minutes seemed like hours and hours felt like days. Worst of all, most of us still couldn't sleep. Between the continued noise and numbness from sitting on the sidewalk for hours, most of us were up and down just to get any form of feeling in our toes.

I don't remember exactly what time the box office opened, but what I do know is that the last hour leading up to it was agonizing. Every minute seemed like a week. At this point, nobody was rested. We were all fueled by desire for tickets and 7-11 junk food. Attitudes were changing fast, but none more so than the guy in front of us with his girlfriend.

As the line rose to their feet during the final fifteen minutes, a friend of mine showed up just to check in on how we were doing before he headed to work. Granted, this wasn't the best time for his arrival, but the response he got from the dude in front of us was so uncool. He showed his true colors when he immediately got defensive about cutting in line, something my friend had no intentions of doing. Though he was told this, it didn't stop the guy from telling my pal to eat a certain bodily waste and perish - Not in those exact words obviously. It was so harsh that even his girlfriend was taken aback at the comment.

Needless to say, this guy quickly got ousted by those of us around him, no longer considering him one of our comrades. If he was going to be in it for himself, he could be by himself.

After what felt like another hour, the doors opened and people were brought in one at a time to stand before the clerk at the box office. The name of the game, and everyone's reason for being there, was to obtain tickets to the first showing, and then some. For me, I had already calculated out the running time of the film, so I knew what I was going to do. Both my friend and I purchased one ticket to every single showing we could fit into the entire day. Yup, essentially a twenty-four hour viewing of The Phantom Menace.

As opening night came upon us, by chance, we ran into one of the guys from the line. Well, technically, two. He was with his buddy, but I honestly don't remember the other guy on any level. We decided we'd all sit together, a salute of sorts to our twenty-four hours on the sidewalk.

When those iconic words, "A Long Time Ago, blah, blah, blah," appeared on the screens, all of us had one final moment of comradery in our journey to Episode I and the movie started. With the exception of the people we came with, our little groups never saw each other again.

Since that time, I've only camped out overnight one more time for something. That was the Xbox 360. However, it was nothing like my first, sitting on a sidewalk with a group of friends, meeting new people and being a part of an experience. An experience that honestly plays in the back of my mind more fondly than the actual movie turned out to be.

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