Sit Long and Prosper

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

Uh-uh, wait, stop...wrong movie. {sigh}
Sorry - do-over.

"Space... the final frontier..."

Yep, that's more like it.

September 1991
What is "Sit Long and Prosper" you ask?
It was a truly nifty event planned and well-executed by the {then} newest/largest movie theater in town.

It was the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek in 1991.
{Yeah, I know, I'm dating myself.)

Front emblem on commemorative T-shirt

The movie theater planned a day-long event where they would show alllllll FIVE {yes, back then there were only 5} of the Star Trek movies, provide us with lunch (pizza!), and we got a commemorative shirt.

Back of commemorative T-shirt

It was a truly stellar day {please pardon the pun}.
I attended the event with The Little Brother {a much more serious Trekkie than I}.
{OK - how cool is it that the blogger spell-check knows/approves of "Trekkie"?!?}
{Knitterly comment for this post - I hadn't yet learned to knit back in 1991. Ah, all that time I could have been knitting.}

We had a grand day watching:

• Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979)
• The Wrath of Khan (1982) {Still my favorite ST Movie. "Kaaaaahhhhn!!"}
• The Search for Spock (1984)
• The Voyage Home (1986) {My 2nd fav ST Movie "Admiral, there be whales here!"}
• The Final Frontier (1989)

(ST VI, "The Undiscovered Country" came out later in 1991.)

During one of the breaks between the movies, or perhaps at our pizza-lunch break we were entertained by the following scenario: 

One extremely tall gent (6'6"-ish) had attended the event in FULL Klingon regalia. His height only served to enhance the well-crafted Klingon uniform.  He literally stood out and added to our Trekkie atmosphere.

Now his youngling son (2-ish?) was adorably blond, wearing standard kid-overalls and was astoundingly well behaved considering our extended stay in the theater.

But during one of our breaks, the youngling sprinted up the aisle from the front of the theater, laughing as he made his escape.

The tall Klingon took just a few long steps and, with one hand, he lifted his son by the back, crossed-straps of his overalls and carted the grinning child back to their seats. The capture, perfectly executed with a {mock} somber Klingon face, seemed to be an easy, well-practiced maneuver that the child and this audience member greatly enjoyed.

May 2013 
Our last Color and Composition class was scheduled for conferences with our instructor. I spent the non-conference time working on my Drawing class homework.

I was chatting with some of my classmates as I worked on my Drawing final project and the topic was the newest Star Trek movie that was opening soon. A young gent with whom I'd had several Serenity/SciFi conversations commented that he was planning to attend a special screening of the two newest Star Trek movies being shown back-to-back:
{COOOOOOL!!!}

• Star Trek (2009)  {Excellent and clever!}
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)  {Again....excellent and clever {unusual for a sequel!}}

I told him I'd been able to attend the "Sit Long and Prosper" event from...well, a long time ago.
He excitedly told me he had been there too!
Considering his young blue-eyed blondness, I asked : "Did your father go dressed as a Klingon?"

Yep. T'was he - the chortling youngling escapee. All grown up and taking art classes.

I told him the story of his escape and nonchalant capture in '91. We were grinning a lot.
I told him to tell his Dad that they had enhanced my SL&P experience - and that his Dad is entirely cool.

I'm still grinning.
I have stated before that I think Tucson only has 2 degrees of separation instead of 6.
This ranks in my top 5 Tucson-happenstance experiences.