Maybe These ARE The Droids You're Looking For

Every year when it gets close to Halloween I start asking my son the same questions and I always get the same answers. Do you want to be a Jedi? No. What about Darth Vader? No. How about a Stormtrooper? No. Why don't you try Boba Fett? No. The answer has always been no. Until this year that is. This year he announced that he wanted to be Darth Vader. The thing that helped to bring him around was that he spent almost two months in Peru this summer and his uncle Gary got him hooked on playing The Force Unleashed video game. Gary is probably a bigger fan of Star Wars than I am, well, maybe he's equal with me.

 

Now, it wasn't as if I was derelict in my fatherly Star Wars duties before he went. I showed him the movies as well as The Clone Wars animated series (whenever we could catch it) and he enjoyed them all very much. But it wasn't until all of that was tied in to his love of video games that it became more of an obsession for him. He's already accumulated three lightsabers of varying styles and is wanting more. To that end my wife is making his Darth Vader costume (she's pretty good at that kind of thing) and he couldn't be happier. He's already wearing his cape around the house.

 

After I commented about his choice of costume on Facebook my brother from other parents Tommy asked me if I wanted any of the Star Wars books that he had. You see, about a decade ago I had given a box full of Star Wars books to his sons. I had read them all and they were only taking up space so I thought why not pay it forward and give them to someone who might be interested in them? At that time in my life I was positive that I'd never marry again and that I would never have a child to share these kinds of things with. How wrong I was. 

 

 

Fast forward to the present and now these books that were a part of my past will now become part of his future. Sure, he's only six years old and not quite at the reading level to start on these books yet but give him a few years and he'll be ready to start tearing through them. I've always been a voracious reader so hopefully he'll take after me in this area. I may even read them all again just to familiarize myself with the story lines and then maybe I can finally get caught up with all of the more recent ones. I've only read a few that weren't associated with the story lines from these books in the past several years so I know I've got some catching up to do.

 

Another thing that I also gave away were my old concert t-shirts from the 80s. Those went to my nephew because they no longer fit me and were also taking up space in a box. I've got that one covered though. You see I haven't stopped going to concerts (my wife is still waiting for me to grow up but I refuse) and I'm making sure I'll have some for his future use. Mine too, I still wear them all the time. Plus it won't be much longer before I start taking him with me and then he can get his own shirt. Of course at the rate he's growing he may have to wear mine sooner rather than later. He's already standing over four feet four inches tall and doesn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon. I can't wait.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.