After getting in a car accident in high school, a young George Lucas decided to give up his dream of race car driving and further his education.

He began his post-secondary education at Modesto Junior College (the oldest community college district in California) where he earned an Associate of Arts degree before transferring to the University of South California film school.

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At the Five Points intersection in Modesto, CA (McHenry, Downey, Needham, 17th and "J"), the town paid tribute to their favorite son by dedicating a statue to American Graffiti and naming the intersection George Lucas Plaza.

Although it was shot in Petaluma, Lucas was raised in Modesto and based much of the California cruising culture in American Graffiti on his experiences there. When Lucas was a lad, this intersection marked the end of downtown and the beginning of the farmland that surrounded the city.

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George "Jar Jar" Lucas went to middle school at Roosevelt Junior High School, home of the Rough Riders.

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George Lucas went to elementary school here. Nobody would play with him so he came up with brilliant stories to entertain himself (complete fabrication that explains a lot).

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George Lucas's father, George Walton Lucas Sr., managed a stationary store at this intersection called L.M. Morris Co.

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