Star Wars #1

My love growing up

Growing up, we all have things that we can remember; for some, it was a best friend, for others, a family holiday or maybe a particular toy.

My love was Star Wars, I connected with a character called Luke Skywalker, and I am sure many of you reading know exactly who I mean.

At the start of the phenomenal first trilogy of Star Wars, this humble farm boy became the hero that many of us wanted to be, and he learned the ways of "The force."

Me, like so many others, I am sure, thought that we also possessed "The force."

I would close my eyes and hold up my right hand and move objects in my mind.

It is funny looking back on it now that I would always practice my "Jedi" skills when I was on my own, and no one was around to watch me because I did not want them to know about the powers I possessed.

In reality, if I was a "Jedi" and I did have those powers, I know I would be showing off to my mates and trying to impress the women!

I watched this movie repeatedly; I knew every word for every character; I sometimes reenacted the scenes believing I was the at the time, the power that this film had on me was second to none.

I remember creeping down the stairs after my parents had gone to bed and opening the VHS Video recorder as quality as possible, putting the tape (movie) inside and closing it, preying my parents would not hear me.

If I put the volume on three, I could just about hear the movie, and it would not wake my parents. Sometimes I would fall asleep watching it and try to explain to my mum why I was downstairs at 5 am when she woke for work!

I felt sad for Luke Skywalker when he lost his parents and found that "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the friend that everyone wanted. But, to be honest, I just loved everything about it, especially the "Jedi".

I remember my dad taking me to town (the mall), and we would walk for hours, then. As soon as we approached a toy store, he would walk swiftly past it.

I used to tug on his hand, "Daddy, why do you always walk fast past the toys shops?" He used to laugh at me, "shall we go in" he would say, then off we would go straight to the Star Wars figures.

I would generally pick out two figures that I could not decide on, which means my dad would typically give in and buy them both for me! It was a trick that worked maybe ninety per cent of the time, so can you blame me?

I maybe had around 80 Star Wars figures, so I was able to get into some great battles with them; who would have known how much effect it had on people's lives.

Would you mind telling me your stories about Star Wars? Do you have a favourite character? Who are they? Let me know in the comments section, and this will be my first on many Star Wars stories to come.