I grew up watching Star Wars movies, but more importantly I
grew up playing with Star Wars figures. I absolutely loved playing with them. I
would set up scenes from the movies, change bad guys to good guys (and vice versa), make up new scenes… I would spend hours in the basement of my parent’s
house creating and playing.
One year (I think I was seven years old) I got in trouble. I don’t
know what I had, or hadn’t, done – but it was enough to warrant a punishment:
all my Star Wars figures were taken away from me. My parents put them in a shoe
box and hide them away. I was told that when I had proven that I could
behave I would receive them back.
When you are a child a day might as well be a week… and week might as well be a month… and so on. Those first few days without my figures seemed like an eternity.
I somehow managed and believe me I was on my best behavior. But, as the punishment went on I started to do other things to pass my time. I wasn’t
punished from playing with friends (and their toys)… I wasn’t punished from
watching television, or riding my bike, or playing board games. My parents took
away what, at the time, was the most important thing to me, but I learned to
adapt and replace those Star Wars figures with other things. So much so that I
forgot about them all together.
Months passed and soon my eighth birthday came around. I received
a lot of cool presents, I am sure. One present was about the size of a shoe
box. I opened it slowly and saw the familiar Nike swoosh. I didn’t need a new
pair of shoes… especially a men’s size 10 ½. I opened the lid to the box and
there were all my Star Wars figures. I guess I had finally proved to them that I could
behave. At least that’s one way to look at it…
What actually happened, I realized years later, was that not
only had I forgotten about the Star Wars figures while I had been out discovering
new things, but my parents had forgotten about them as well. They hid them away
in the same closet that they stored the wrapping paper and what not so when my
birthday came around they must have discovered them and said, “Oh shit! We
forgot to give him these figures back!” I can just picture my mom and dad
laughing about it and then deciding that they would just wrap up the box and make it
another present for me – it would, after all, save them some money on gifts.
This, ultimately, led to me not really being interested in
Star Wars figures anymore. The movies were no longer being made (although
rumblings and rumors of Star Wars actually being a nine part saga ran rampant
on the playground) and I had moved on to other interests. Star Wars toys were
no longer being given to me as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, so when my
mom told me to gather up some toys to give to Goodwill those were the first to
go. I wasn’t sad about it as I wasn’t playing with them and thought, “If I get
rid of these it makes room for toys that I actually want.” And just like that the
Ewok Village, Millennium Falcon, and a vast arrays of action figures were out
of my life.
Years passed and it was now the summer before my Junior year
of high school. I was hanging out with some friends and we got to talking about
Star Wars. I still loved the movies and was telling them about the toys I had
when I was young. Just talking about it (and now writing about it) got me very
nostalgic. Playing and creating with those figures were some of my best
childhood memories. I decided then and there that I would reclaim my
collection. I got my first job that summer and used nearly every dollar earned
to go out and buy Star Wars stuff. I searched at antique malls, toy shops, flea
markets… you name it… until I finally had more than what I had ever had when I
was a child. Then, just as quickly as I started, I stopped. Much like when I was a child other interests took
over. Other things became more important to me so I just packed up the Star
Wars collection in a box and there it stays.
I have a five year old son now and he loves Star Wars. He
spends countless hours in his room playing with his action figures and creating
new and exciting adventures. I go in there and play with him as often as
possible and it makes me feel like I did when I was his age. Because of
this I recently decided to dust off the old figures and complete the collection
I had started years ago. I’ll probably have to convince my wife to let me
display it somehow in our home (this is what I had always intended when I was
younger), but she’s pretty good natured about such things so it shouldn’t be
too difficult to do. But the thing that I have realized from this is that Star
Wars, to me, is not just a series of movies. It has literally been in my life
since I was born and has been a part of me at every stage of my life:
childhood, teen years, and now as an adult and parent. I am able to watch the
movies with my son (and someday my daughter) and play with him just as I played
when I was young. I can share with him my fondness for the “old school” collectibles
as he collects the new stuff. And although I have changed over the course of my
thirty-five years, Star Wars has always been there – ready to take me back when
new interests fade away.
When the recent announcement came out about Disney purchasing
Lucasfilm and working on new Star Wars movies I read that a lot of fans were
disappointed and angered. I’m not. I can only imagine the happiness and joy that
new Star Wars movies will bring to some young child in his/her years to come,
and if it’s half as much as the happiness and joy it has brought to me then it’s
well worth it.
The heater is still out and the wife is still sick. Hopefully
at least one of the two can be fixed tonight… if it’s the latter then we can
generate our own heat, if you know what I mean! Bow-chick-a-bow-wow!
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