Wait a minute! That's not taking place in a far-away galaxy, it's happening under my own roof. And the 8-year-old boy, my son Miles, has just turned 9. Yes, 9.
I remember seeing the original "Star Wars" movie when it first came out in the summer of 1977. It was OK, but nothing to get too excited about. But I was in my early 20s. When Miles first saw a "Star Wars" movie he was only 7 at most, so I can see how it was love at first sight.
Since then, his Mom has bought him and his sister, Lucy, copies of all the DVDs in the "Star Wars" series, and Miles has accumulated a fleet of starships and an army of Star Wars figures. You have to watch your step to avoid the little Luke Skywalkers and Anakin Skywalkers and Hans Solos and Yodas and General Grievouses.
When I was a third-grader like Miles, I and the other boys in the neighborhood each had arsenals of toy machine guns, cowboy six-shooters, old-timey Civil War-type rifles and assorted rubber knives, hatchets and tomahawks. Not Miles. Well, he has a toy cowboy pistol and rifle, but that's it. And he's never been overly interested in them. Instead, the bulk of his stash is Star Wars gear - futuristic machine guns and ray guns, some of which shoot fluorescent darts and all of which make loud, obnoxious shooting sounds just like those in the movie. Don't cross him or he'll vaporize you. Or slice you in half with his light saber.
And speaking of loud and obnoxious - but still kind of cute - is his Darth Vader outfit, which came complete with a Darth Vader "breathing sound device" and various sinister snippets of recorded Vader dialogue, such as "I AM YOUR FATHER!!!" delivered in Vader's (actually actor James Earl Jones') thundering basso profundo.
But as his mother and I occasionally have to remind Miles, there's more to his universe than just "Star Wars." Take music, for example. He's fast catching up to his sister as a pianist, sings like a bird and is a surprisingly strong whistler.
He's got two years of karate under his (green) belt and is deceptively powerful for such a slender kid. He also has thrived during two years of Cub Scouting under the tutelage of Den Leader Paul Sharpe of Pack 187. He went to summer camp for the first time this summer at the Robert W. Woodruff Scout Reservation near Blairsville, where he got to shoot a rifle and bow-and-arrow and loved it.
A third-grader at Ford Elementary, Miles has begun using big words now and then, like the one he dropped into a conversation last weekend that made his parents raise their eyebrows: "entrepreneur." He said he'd learned it at school.
Like most boys, he enjoys playing catch in the backyard. While watching the Minnesota Vikings the other week I mentioned that quarterback Brett Favre is famous for throwing hard.
"Does he throw as hard as you do?" he asked.
"Umm, I think Favre throws a little harder than I do," came the reply.
And during the Halloween season he happened to be reading a book that included Albert Einstein as a character, which led him to ask me as we were raking one Saturday, "Is Frankenstein related to Einstein?"
His favorite foods (and just about only foods) continue to be pizza and chicken strips. I've tried telling him that Anakin Skywalker's favorite food is carrots, even though that's not shown in the movies; but for some reason, Miles doesn't believe me.
His entertainment tastes have evolved from "Teletubbies" and "Barney" to "Caillou" and "The Wiggles"; and then through huge infatuations with Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine; plus plenty of "Tom and Jerry" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" along the way.
He's now two years into an epic journey to galaxies far, far away, headed to places and times and experiences as yet unknown. But he seems to be enjoying the trip, though, and so are we!
Joe Kirby is Editorial Page Editor of the Marietta Daily Journal and co-author of the new "Then & Now: Marietta Revisited."
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