.... so as 28 Days to the Center of Sergio approaches the midway point in the countdown, I rewind to a time where the everyday problems of today happened to be non-existent. I was in the 5th grade at the time, and if you can remember those times, the best days seemed to be when you would get out early on a Friday, or had a half day. Well, I went to Catholic school growing up so you know what that meant, a lot of religious holidays! So more often than not I was either getting out early or not in school. But one day, in 1997, sticks out all too clear in my mind still to this day. For those of you who do not know, my grandpa, Frank, God rest his soul, was some what of a joker. For as long as I could remember he always had a way to make us smile. Funny considering how much of a disciplinarian he was, but all too suiting of his personality. To this day I still keep secrets from my grandma about many of the times we shared my grandfather and I. But those times will last forever in my mind.
With that said, it was 1997, and if you know how much of the geek and/or dork that I am. It meant that George Lucas was re-releasing his Star Wars trilogy with many technological enhancements. Star Wars IV: A New Hope, was the first to be re-released. At the time, I was attending St. Mary's elementary school in Boyle Heights. If I remember correctly, it was roughly 10am, when Ms. Castaneda's voice came over the loud speaker saying, "Sergio Villasenor report to the attendance office, your grandfather is here to take you home." At first I thought what happened, but considering it was only 10am and I was not much of a math fan, I grabbed my book bag and headed down. When I got to the office, there was my grandpa, he said, "lets go." Well you do not have to tell me twice, as we raced out. So we got in the car and head home, but suddenly I realized that the route to my grandparents house was not the one we were taking at the time. Before you know it we were on the I-5 South. We got off on Norwalk Blvd and hit the AMC Norwalk. Now, I was young, so I didn't ask too many questions but I knew that this meant we were going to the movies! My grandpa said to me, "Don't tell you grandma". We approached the ticket counter and he got us two tickets to see Star Wars IV: A New Hope. I had always watched the older versions, as my aunt Patty got me into the whole Star Wars hype from a young age so I knew this was going to be good. I was a kid in a candy store, seeing the re-release the first day it came out, and in suiting fashion, with a man I to this day admire and respect at the highest-level.
After the show, my grandpa took me to KB Toys and said you can get one thing. So, in light of my new obsession involving Star Wars I picked up my first action figure, Luke Skywalker. This sparked my overall want to collect Star Wars memorabilia, which to this day I still have in mint condition in my garage back home. So like any true collector, I have a piece, or set, that I truly love. What collector doesn't? It is of my favorite scene in A New Hope, the Death Star rescue of Leia. When Luke and Han dress up as stormtroopers, use Chewie as a prisoner in disguise, and save the princess. The actual toy piece, still unopened at home in Whittier, to this day reminds me of the time I shared with my grandfather. A 3 piece collectors item of Han, Luke, and Chewie, rescuing Leia from Death Star Level 5 Holding Block AA-23. 23, what a coincidence.
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