Part 6 "MY DAD VS. JABBA THE HUTT"

Would Han Solo ever be freed from his Carbonite prison? Would Luke Skywalker become a Jedi Knight and, more importantly, was he in fact the son of Darth Vader, dark lord of the Sith? These and many other seemingly useless questions would soon be answered in a yet to be released film entitled, that’s right…STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI. Right off the top of my head, I can’t honestly think of a single topic, or of another movie for that matter, that my Father could possibly have less interest in. (He’s always been more of a “Cowboy/shoot-em’-up” kinda’ guy, ya know? Ewoks and Jabba the Hutt just weren’t his thing.) But there he was, waiting around with my brother and sister and me for the theater to open up, underneath the overhanging marquee of The MASSENA Theater on Main Street, that mid-July day in 1983. I am quite sure that there were any number of things that he would have rather been doing on that sunny afternoon, but he wasn’t doing them. He was with us. My Dad has always worked longer hours, during his career, than any other man that I’ve ever known. Now that I’m a father myself, I more fully realize how precious his few days off must have been to him, and it makes the times that he spent with us all the more important to me, even decades later. I will always remember first experiencing RETURN OF THE JEDI at the local theater in my childhood hometown of Massena, New York, not because of the epic space battles, or the harrowing escapes portrayed on-screen by my childhood heroes Han & Luke, but because of the time that I spent with my modern day hero…my Father. I love you, Dad. Thanks.