I feel incredibly lucky to have been 10 years old when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial hit the big screen on June 11, 1982. It ended up being the perfect age to fall in love with the movie and a very different looking alien. A love that has not wavered for a single moment. A love that has always had me wishing that I would be the one that finds E.T. Not kidding, to this day I would freak out if I met E.T.

I grew up in Hawaii and I remember going to the drive-in on Oahu to watch it a few times. The same drive-in where my other favorite movie was seen multiple times, The Dark Crystal. Some of my best childhood memories were movies at the drive-in!

When I was a teenager, I somehow ended up adopting a stray cat. She was white with a bit of gray on her head. I named her E.T. and she was my best friend until she up and ran away. She didn’t look a thing like him, but it was a good name.

The must-have toy for Christmas in the early 1980’s was a Speak ‘n Spell because it was in the movie, and as a kid I loved spelling. I know I was a nerd. Still am. I played with this thing for hours and hours, all the time. What other kid gets this excited over a spelling toy? I wish I still had my original. I’ve seen them in Target with the other retro toys, and I can’t lie, I’ve been tempted to get one just for the nostalgia. E.T. hasn’t shown up in my back yard, so I don’t need it to help him phone home. Yet.

Merchandising is nothing like it is today, but I’m sure I probably asked for everything I saw that was E.T. related. And I got some of it! I used to have the board game, but I don’t know what happened to it. I do remember that there was a flimsy plastic ghost costume you’d put over your E.T. character to “hide” him from people. This is a picture of it I found on the internet. Maybe I’ll get lucky and come across one in a thrift store. I’m not about paying those eBay prices. I do have my now vintage The Rescuers game, though. See my previous blog post about that!

One of the cooler things I still have from my childhood is a pair of E.T. beach towels. One was mine, the other my brother’s. My sister also had one that was E.T. in a wig and a dress in the closet. I’m not sure what happened to that one. One of them is more worn thin, the other has a hole. But I will NEVER give them up. They’ve seen so many Hawaiian beach days and I’ve loved my beach towel, as much as you can love a beach towel, for all these years.

Here’s a little Monique on a Hawaiian beach in an E.T. shirt. Remember when these were all the rage? Since I do most of my E.T. shopping at E.T.’s Toy Closet at Universal Studios, I wish they’d get some retro shirts like this. I’m not fond of the new stuff, really.

I don’t care how much trash people talk about the E.T. Atari 2600 game, I absolutely loved it. I used to play for hours and hours with my brother and sister. For all those people who say no one beat it, WE KICKED IT’S ASS. We saw E.T. go home in the spaceship more than once. Did we yell and scream at each other? Did we freak out if one of us did something wrong when it was our turn to use the controller? Hell, yes we did. But we made memories. There’s a documentary about this game on Netflix you should check out. I’m probably the only person that cried when I watched it.

Luckily for me I live in a neighborhood behind the Universal Orlando Resort, where I spent 4 1/2 years working. I now have an annual pass because I love to go into the park just to ride E.T. Adventure. Yes, that is my all-time favorite ride at Universal, and yes, I literally go to the park to ride it and leave. It’s also the last of the original rides from when the park opened in 1990. The forest queue is the most magical and wonderful smell in all of theme park queues. Don’t believe me? Just check the Facebook passholder groups for confirmation. While it sucks for me, I love to see that the queue is rather long most of the time. All the cool parents and grandparents bring their kids to show them something extremely nostalgic and deeply loved.

E.T.’s Toy Closet has the two best photo opportunities you’ll ever find in a theme park. Don’t miss out on these when you go!

Something really cool at Universal Studios is the Prop Shop. This store sells vintage items and, as the name implies, props. They are usually things that have been used in the park. I was gifted a tree and two photos that were props in E.T.’s Toy Closet, the dump store at the end of the ride. I also have a pack of E.T. bubble gum cards. Fun fact: I used to have a huge stack of original cards when I was a kid. We were very poor and selling things at a swap meet in Hawaii. Coincidentally, it was the lot of the drive-in where I saw E.T. I decided to sell my cards, along with some from Star Wars, to earn money to buy food. I walked off to the bathroom and when I came back my cards were gone. I asked my sister how much she sold them for, and she said $.25. For the WHOLE stack. As you can see, more than 30 years later, I’m still not over this devastating loss.

I have a small shrine to E.T. on top of one of my book case. It includes the tree, an original drawing by my daughter and two vintage Pizza Hut glasses from my daughter, the Topps bubble gum cards, and a vinyl E.T. from Universal. We didn’t eat much Pizza Hut when we were little, so we never got the glasses. But I do have a bunch of McDonald’s Muppets glasses from the 1980’s.

These are my fancy E.T. towels from Universal. They’re the two designs they’ve had since I’ve lived here. They’re a bit smaller than my originals. If they offer another, will I get it? You bet your ass I will. I will never have too many E.T. beach towels.

Being this close to Universal allows me to spend far too much money on E.T. merchandise. But I’m a big girl now and I can do what I want with my own money! Because of this, I have pretty much every plush they offer and a satin pillow. Again, I really need them to step up their wearables. This is my E.T. bedroom shrine. They sit on my Mickey Mouse chair and share the space with a Mickey and Donald. Aren’t they the cutest?!

My E.T. love has been going strong for nearly 40 years. I’ll keep watching the movie, riding the Adventure, and buying whatever E.T. merchandise I want. Forever. For-ev-er. I will also make sure my grandchildren know E.T. Like they have a choice?! Hahaha!

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