March 2009 Archives

Mom wrote a nice post with a bunch of fun stories from our childhood.  It was full of cute stories about all of us kids.  There was one about me losing an action figure that I still recall very vividly.  I refer to this incident now as the Escape of Star Wars Dude. 

I had just gotten that guy either that day or the day before.  I was pumped!  He was a Star Wars action figure and one of my first.  I was convinced that he would be the cornerstone of the immense collection I would someday have.  He was wearing a cool black uniform and had cool hoses that went to his helmet with lots of cool buttons (that did nothing back in those days) on his chest.  He also had cool gloves and boots.

I wanted to make him parachute to the ground--since space pilots needed parachutes--and I just so happened to have a helium baloon laying around.  OK, so it was floating around.  Anyway.  I tied him on with some yarn and experimented in the house.  He was too light and kept floating to the ceiling.  This would not do.  So I searched around for some weight to add to him.  I came upon an old plastic bottle that used to hold bubbles.  It was a PERFECT fit.  I could jam him down in there and he would stay.  Best of all, the weight was exactly enough to make him slowly float to the ground like he was under a parachute.  I could just give him a quick tug and he'd come right out of the bottle.  Time to go outside so I could throw him REALLY high.

I went outside and the weather was beautiful.  Almost no wind and a cloudless sky.  I reared back and gave Stormy--I'd decided his name was Stormy because he was like a storm trooper, but cooler--a massive heave.  My man and his 'chute flew about 30 feet in the air in a big rainbow.  The balloon worked as before.  He floated back to Earth, but a lot faster than I remembered him doing in the house.  The bottle hit on the dirt a little harder than I was expecting.  It jarred Stormy loose.  Stormy started to float skyward under the balloon.  Everything went into slow motion as I realized what was about to happen.  I ran after him doing the "NOOOOOooooooo!" that you always see in the movies.  I got there about a foot too late.  I watched him drift slowly to the heavens.  It took a few minutes for him to float out of sight in the direction of Davenport.  I spent a few minutes trying to convince Dad to jump in the car and help me chase Stormy, but he didn't seem to think it was feasible.

So yeah, he was my favorite dude and brand new.  I lost him on the VERY FIRST throw.  Sickening when I think back to it.  Oh well, it's a good story now.  Anyway, here's a pic of him I found on ebay. He must have landed in the yard of a collector over in Davenport, or maybe Chandler.