In which the Dark Side recruits my kids

I might have mentioned that we love flea markets. It’s a little early for flea market season, but there was an antiques and collectibles show at the Nepean Sportsplex this weekend, and we thought it would be fun to check it out.

About two minutes after we got there, I realized that we’d made a huge mistake. We brought out strong-willed, curious, and relentlessly single-minded two-year-old to a place filled with colourful, breakable, and completely untouchable items by the hundreds — all stacked at toddler eye-level. I almost turned on my heel and left, forfeiting the $5.00 admission charge, but Beloved had already been sucked in by a comic book display, and I felt I should stick it out for at least a few minutes for his benefit.

I was craning my neck around, trying to keep one hand on the grabby toddler, two eyes on the big boys, and scope the joint for vintage cameras, when I noticed the guys dressed up in the Star Wars outfit, and I knew we weren’t going anywhere.

Isn’t that awesome? These guys are just dudes who love Star Wars so much that they joined a group called the 501st Legion, “the world’s premier Imperial Star Wars costuming fan club. They do parades, charity events, and apparently collectibles shows. There are 26 local members, at least a half a dozen of which I met today. I can’t tell you how close I came to joining, or how close Simon’s head came to exploding when he got to hold Darth Maul’s two-sided light sabre!! They had little freebies for the kids, including Star Wars coins and cards, and even “Imperial Guard Training Manuals” with colouring pages and puzzles and coded messages. Talk about little-boy heaven!

As if that weren’t enough Star Wars excitement for one day, we found a table selling old-school Star Wars action figures for extremely reasonable prices. We got this land speeder, circa 1995 but still in the box, plus a handful of action figures, for $18. We got Jedi Luke, Lando Calrissian, and Han Solo with removable carbonite. *snicker*

Beloved contends he bought this Princess Leia in her gold bikini for the boys. I am not convinced.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to see the boys playing with proper Star Wars action figures, and not the new Clone Wars crap. Star Wars has been a motif throughout my life — you think we called him “Lucas” randomly? Okay, it was only partly so Beloved could say to him, “Luke, I am your father.”

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see if I can find a gold metal bikini on eBay.

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