{"product_id":"born-in-1977","title":"Born in 1977: The Star Wars Generation","description":"\u003cp class=\"tl\"\u003eDreaming Beyond the Stars\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"hook\"\u003eBorn in 1977? Then you remember the movie line that wrapped around the building, the space shuttle on TV in every classroom, and believing you'd go to space someday.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bdg-split\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"banner\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"icon\"\u003e📖\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThis is a story book.\u003c\/b\u003e A first-person coming-of-age novel about someone born in 1977, growing up through the real events, songs, toys and prices of their decades.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe story\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe envelope was in a shoebox in the attic, under a stack of report cards and a bag of Christmas lights tangled since the Clinton years. It was a cardboard sleeve with a starry sky on the front and the words Early Bird in yellow letters. Gina Whitaker opened it with a butter knife a long time ago. Now she opens it again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn in 1977: The Star Wars Generation is a first-person life story of a girl born in October 1977 in Webster, Texas, the Houston bay-area town beside NASA's Johnson Space Center. Her father is an oilfield-equipment salesman from Oklahoma. Her mother, from Houston's East End, works at a NASA contractor. Gina grows up in a place where the biggest rocket ever built is lying on its side in a field and a kid can walk right up and touch it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book follows her through a January morning in 1986 when a second-grade classroom goes quiet, garage sales under a pecan tree, and a November night in 1989 when the Berlin Wall comes down. There are New Kids on the Block, Selena posters, a boy on a shrimp boat in Kemah, a summer job selling freeze-dried ice cream at Space Center Houston, and a failed physics exam that changes her direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen come the big city and the big company: an elevator with a live stock ticker, a collapse, and a year back in her childhood bedroom. The sky over Texas breaks again on a Saturday morning in 2003. Storms, a rebuilt house, a Super Bowl in Houston, and a spring spent teaching physics by video carry her back to where it began.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA timeline of 1977, famous people born that year, and a look at what the year means in other cultures are included at the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a heartfelt gift for anyone who looked up at the sky as a kid and believed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA few things that happened in 1977\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul class=\"facts\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1977\u003c\/b\u003e — August 20 and September 5 — NASA launches Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 toward the outer planets\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1977-01-20\u003c\/b\u003e — Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as president\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1977-01-23\u003c\/b\u003e — The miniseries Roots airs on ABC; its finale is watched by more than 100 million Americans\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1977-05-25\u003c\/b\u003e — Star Wars opens in theaters\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1977-06-10\u003c\/b\u003e — The Apple II goes on sale\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAlso born in 1977\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul class=\"facts\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eShakira\u003c\/b\u003e — The best-selling Latin female artist of her era, from \"Whenever, Wherever\" (2001) to \"Hips Don't Lie\" (2006) to the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show Has won multiple Grammys and Latin Grammys\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eOrlando Bloom\u003c\/b\u003e — Legolas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMaggie Gyllenhaal\u003c\/b\u003e — Oscar-nominated for Crazy Heart (2009); wrote and directed The Lost Daughter (2021)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTom Hardy\u003c\/b\u003e — Inception (2010), Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBrittany Murphy\u003c\/b\u003e — Tai in Clueless (1995) and Eminem's co-star in 8 Mile (2002). She died in 2009\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"NostalgiaGift","offers":[{"title":"PDF","offer_id":48946810224801,"sku":"BI-1977-PDF","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Softcover","offer_id":48946810257569,"sku":"BI-1977-SOFT","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48946810290337,"sku":"BI-1977-HARD","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/nostalgiagift.com\/products\/born-in-1977","provider":"Nostalgia Gift","version":"1.0","type":"link"}