An appearance from the now 75-year-old Burt Reynolds, a sweet surprise for a child and a near-brawl highlighted a crowded and festive Smokey and the Bandit screening at Tampa Theatre on March 23.

Why did I go to the screening? Burt Reynolds is an icon from my childhood. He's the first male sex symbol I learned about even if I was too young to appreciate his swagger.

As a kid, I didn't understand why he dated that lady talk-show host Dinah Shore (20 years his senior). On the playground, boys idolized Reynolds as much as the band KISS. When they weren't playing air guitar and sticking out their tongues, they faked CB radios, mimicking static and saying, "Breaker, Breaker" and drawing Trans Ams on notebook paper.

My memories of the movie and Reynolds swirl around all these nostalgic childhood associations, and it was indeed a trip to see the black Pontiac Trans Am replica and free Turner Classics Movies screening of Smokey and the Bandit last night, which I hadn't seen in its entirety since I was 8, when it was showing in theaters.

This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.