When did my obsessions become mainstream?

It's been obvious for a while. Culture is moving in my direction.  But I think over the last few months, I've decided that I'm now exactly at the center.

I didn't move an inch.  Culture moved to me.  I am now at the center of the universe, which is only right and proper, but also a little scary.

I turned to Linda after watching half a dozen TV promos for upcoming shows and said, "They've really figure me out."

I wasn't aware just how out of the mainstream I was when I was younger.  Dad and I watched Star Trek, watched it get canceled after season 3, cause, you know, it really wasn't that popular.

I remember reading Lord of the Rings in Junior High and not being able to find another soul who had read it.  As an adult I've had to remind myself that most people didn't read when I was younger -- that it isn't a new phenomenon.   I was glad that before my mom passed away that the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, so she finally understood that her weird son wasn't alone in his obsession.  ("I liked Harry Potter more," was her comment.)

An interesting thing happens in the store all the time now.  People come in who are fans of things that I've always liked.  But...they are fans in the sense of t-shirts and buttons and toys, not in the actual books or comics the thing they profess to like is based on.  So it's possible all this "mainstreaming" is only an inch deep and a mile wide.

On the other hand, I don't get people backing out of the store in alarm anymore, like used to happen 30 years ago. So much is familiar to so many people that almost everyone feels comfortable in my store now.

It's like, when did hard rock become background music to commercials?  When did the most obscure pop culture reference become mainstream currency?  When did science fiction not only become accepted by mainstream, but front and center?

It's all very strange.