Thanksgiving Memory: it was always about STAR WARS

I have much to be thankful for:  A healthy, loving family.  A good job that pays the bills.  The time to spend with my family, to read a good book, or to write.  All cliché and classic.  And all true. 

But, since this is a pop-cultural-type blog, and because a new movie is on the horizon, I found myself reminiscing about one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories from childhood.  And, of course, it revolves around Star Wars. 

This was post-Jedi.  Probably was Thanksgiving, 1983, the year Jedi hit theaters.  I don’t remember the details around the day (though I can say, for certain, it was a Thursday), but I do remember what I chose to do to pass the time before the big meal—always held at our house, with my mother doing the bulk of the cooking and preparation.  I grabbed my slipcased edition of the Scholastic Star Wars Treasury. 

These were the abridged storybooks, filled with images from the movies, including scenes that did not make it into the final films (though that may only be true of Star Wars, where they included stills of Biggs Darklighter, as well as one of Luke, with the hat we never see in the film, looking to the sky through binoculars to watch the Star Destroyer and Tantive IV battling above Tattooine).  This film trilogy was my all-time favorite for many, many years, and the idea of sitting down to read all these books sounded like a gift to myself. 

And it was.  I draped myself across the arms of the chair in our front room and began reading.  Didn’t stop ‘til I’d gotten through all three, which wasn’t a huge chore, these being abridged and all.  It was a great way for me to enjoy my favorite movies because I’m certain we didn’t yet own a VCR, and my uncle only had Star Wars and Empire for his laserdisc player. 

The memory of that day, sitting and reading those books, with all those images direct from the films, gives me a nice, warm feeling in my nostalgic gut.  I hope, after taking my youngest to “The Force Awakens,” that he will find similar memories to look back on someday, like I have with this. 

-chris