We entered the library, where Mr. Sledge was sitting at his desk, deep in concentration. The clear hush, slight murmur, and occasional giggle of the students in the library were not enough to break the concentration. As we worked our way in and around toward his desk, we were within mere feet before Mr. Sledge noticed the group sent to greet him on his birthday.
Mr Sledge was presented with a Star Wars cake, and a Dickies work shirt adorned with 501st patches. We roamed around the library, took many pictures, then filtered out into the halls to go greet the administrators nice enough to allow us to come into the school. We then returned to the library, dressed down, enjoyed some chips, salsa, cake, and water.
I was informed that our picture will be in the school yearbook.
I collected a donation which will be mailed in for our McLean County - Relay for Life - Imperial Walkers team.
I gotta give a huge thanks to everyone that participated in this. It was a lot of driving and on a weekday afternoon. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you all taking the time to help me make it a special day.
Troopers:
3052 - Steve Szyndrowski - Vader
82371 - Shannon Buetsch - Boushh
4186 - Roland Batrouni - Storm Trooper
50488 - Tyler Meier - Tusken Raider
12180 - John Sylvester - Tusken Raider
Trooping time: 1 hour
Charitable Donation: $50 to our Relay for Life team
Also, I wanted to include a message I got from Mr. Sledge following the event.
Thank you for the biggest surprise EVER! It will never be outdone. The bar has officially been set too high.
You guys were just too much to take in at once. So awesome, it was like being star struck. Just didn't know what to say or do or how to react, just kept gazing in amazement, kinda dumbfounded.
After having a few hours to reflect on how cool that was today, I will share with you one of my oldest Star Wars memories and childhood memories which ties in with the picture below.
In the 70's somebody bought me a Stormtrooper and a Darth Vader before I'd seen the movie. It wasn't my parents, they didn't have a clue. I was infatuated with these figures on first sight. On the back of the package there were more! And on the left was the Tusken Raider. He was absolutely the next one I had to have!
Not just saying that, John. I was 7 years old, and already an Oakland Raider fan, so here was another Raider of sorts and he was the BADDEST looking one of the dozen. When Kenner started this, the first pics were not of the actual figures, so a little kid's imagination could run a bit. That Tusken Raider was a bad mofo.
I vividly remember getting on the bus to school in St. Louis with my two figures and the cardboard backing, showing it to my friends and after the hysteria died down, I sat there in my bus seat and looked at the 12 figures on that cardboard, knowing I had to have them all, but the Tusken Raider was first on the list... yeah, gotta get that one next.
This was 2nd grade, 1977. Hooked on Star Wars and KISS. Haha!
Anyway, to bring it all full circle, if somebody had told me, at that moment, in that bus seat in 2nd grade, someday kiddo you will meet these characters, it would've have been a dream come true. I know you think you know how much I enjoyed today, but you probably don't know how deep that runs for me. Almost cried when I saw the cake. I was overwhelmed by it all. But I sucked it up.
To see how much the high school kids LOVED you guys today, 35 years after I fell in love with these characters as a second grader, was really just more than I can put into words. Truly surreal. It was my birthday, but you made so many other people happy, and those kids will remember today for the rest of their lives, as will I.
Thanks SO much for the shirt, beyond COOL. Dig the play on the name
I'm rambling and will wrap this up. Again the pic below is the one I remember from the 70's on the back of all the figures I eventually got for birthdays and Christmas. Used to stare at this, dreaming about having all of them.
You made me feel like a little kid again today. At a time when I'm not having much fun and feel like an old man, this was great therapy, I'm forever grateful.
Much love. Thank you SO much.
