Santa Trooper of the Redback Garrison
There’s something about this time of year that brings out the kid in all of us (which is great, because a guy in Stormtrooper armor isn’t fooling anyone the other eleven months of the year). The holidays are a silly time — one for crazy sweaters, sing-songy music, and wishlists of toys (figurative or literal). But it’s also a time of child-like wonder: seeing the world through new eyes, allowing ourselves to ponder the innocence that mankind is capable of, and being moved by the traditions that came before us. The trick is remembering we can learn a lot from kids. Judge them by their size, do not!
Fifteen years ago, the Ghost of Christmas Past paid me a visit. It told me the Star Wars trilogy was returning to the big screen and just like that my childhood flashed before my eyes. Suddenly I was back to being that eight-year-old waking up Christmas morning to find a Millennium Falcon playset. And as fast as you can say Tiny Tim I was buying my first set of armor with the crazy idea of being a kid again.
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I grew up in the ’80s. I’ll never forget when I was a kid, going down to the store with my loose change to get the latest bubble gum cards from my favorite movie — Return of the Jedi. I would spend hours pouring over all the classic cards in my collection, looking at all my favorite characters. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said “Han Solo.”
