The Star Wars Gang

In the early 80's my parents decided to send me to an after-school care run by a little old lady in her home. Aunt Lou. I really didn't understand why I couldn't just stay at home by myself. I was 8 for crying out loud. That's practically grown up. I argued. I lost. I gave up.

The first day my father picked me up from school and took me to Aunt Lou's Playschool. He knocked at the door and we were soon greeted through the screen door by a barrage of boys my age. One of them immediately started saying, "freckle-face, freckle-face." I crossed my arms and looked up at my father expecting him to break down the door and strangle my heckler to defend my honor. Instead he just stood and smiled and waited for Aunt Lou to come let us in. She gave us the grand tour which included an introduction to the rest of the kids. They were all boys. Great. Just wonderful. Not a female in the house besides Aunt Lou, who spent her time in her rocking chair watching "The People's Court" and knitting.

The days passed at a snail's pace. I learned that my nemesis' name was Cody. He was the leader of the "cool" kids. And believe it or not, he was blessed with the same freckles that graced my countenance. Yet he still referred to me as "Freckle-face." The irony of that completely lost in his tiny pea-brain.

I hated going to Aunt Lou's. I loathed it. I decided this was my hell. This was God's punishment for not being nice to Jenny at Kelly's sleepover or whatever other atrocity an 8-year-old can commit. I promised I would go to confession and seek absolution if God would just save me. (Okay, so I'm a little melodramatic. I'm female. It comes with the hormones.)

One day as I sat inside the little plastic refrigerator pondering how to burn the place down and make it look like an accident, I noticed Cody and the boys were playing with *gasp* Star Wars action figures. They even had the Millenium Falcon!!!

I had seen Star Wars, of course and was still reeling with the fact that Vader was Luke's father. I wanted a piece of the action. I wanted to be Obi-Wan in his infinite wisdom. I wanted to feel the power of the Force.

I took a deep breath, crawled out of the refrigerator, and walked over to the boys.

"I wanna play."

"You're a girl."

"No duh, Sherlock."

"Go away, Freckle-face."

I stomped back to the mini-kitchen that I was confined to every afternoon and seethed.
This went on for years in my mind (in actuality it was probably 2 or 3 days).

Then one day, something changed. The boys were whispering and looking at me. Finally one of Cody's henchmen waved me over.

I climbed down from the Fisher Price stove and walked over to them.

"Do you wanna play Star Wars with us?"

I couldn't believe it. I was in. Finally I could carry a lightsaber and battle the evil in the galaxy.

"Well, duh! Of course!"

I sat down with them and Cody reached in his bag of action figures and handed me...a Princess Leia.

"What's this? I wanna be a Jedi!"

"You're a girl, freckle-face. We need a girl to be Leia, so she can cook and clean up after us."

I sighed. I knew if I walked away they'd never let me back in. Leia was better than nothing.

"Fine. But tomorrow I wanna be Obi-Wan."

"Whatever. We'll see."

As the days turned into weeks, every day was the same story. The Star Wars Gang would sit down and Cody would hand us our character for the day. I was always handed Leia. Occasionally they'd give me C3PO too, because according to them, "he's so lame." And if there were only a couple of us there for the day I would get some of the other minor characters. They even let me fly the Millenium Falcon every once in a blue moon. I was having fun and not letting it bother me that I never got in on any of the good fights. Some of the boys even started calling me by my name. (Cody not included.)

At the end of the school year my grandparents offered to let me stay with them, so my time at Aunt Lou's came to an abrupt end. By that time there were other girls enrolling in Aunt Lou's. Although I never got to be Obi-Wan or wield a lightsaber, I made sure Han and Luke were well fed and the Falcon was clean and full of gas, but most importantly I was the first girl in the history of Aunt Lou's to be part of the Star Wars Gang opening the door for my predecessors to join the fight to save the galaxy.

(And oh, how I laughed when Episode VI came out and I realized all that time I had the Force too. It was in me all along.)

And today's shoe:
These are most like the shoes I was wearing back in the Aunt Lou days. Plain black Mary Janes. They're much more functional than most of my shoes, but are still classics.

Their story:
I had a pair of Kenneth Cole black Mary Janes back in college. I loved them. I wore them every day, with everything. Then I got my puppy, Scout. Scout decided he loved them too and ate them. He literally ate them. One of them was gone completely.

For 7 years I searched and searched and couldn't find another pair to replace them - they didn't have the right heel, were too shiny, were too "platformy".

Then my mother called and said she thought she found a pair that were like them. She bought them for me for Christmas 5 years ago. They were perfect! About a month later, I came home from work and found that my roommate's dog had somehow opened the door to my room and guess what he grabbed to chew on. Yep, my black Mary Janes. Fortunately, these escaped with only a small bit of damage. Thank God I didn't have to work late that night! Now they're my bad-weather, go to a soccer game, go on a hike with the Cub Scouts shoes.

*stepping off my shoebox*
-Jenn