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little friends parade
Naperville, IL
November 27, 2005
No One Could Stop Us... Nobody!
 It
was windy, it was rainy, and it was cold, but that didn’t stop all those
who were about to participate in Naperville’s Hometown Holidays parade.
The parade, sponsored by
Little Friends, Inc., was scheduled to start at
11:30am in downtown Naperville. The question that ran through my mind was
if there was going to be a big crowd watching or not. Regardless of how
many people would be present, it really wouldn’t matter to me if there was
a huge crowd or a small crowd, because I was going to be marching in my
sandtrooper armor with my fellow troopers. This was going to be my third
mission with the Midwest Garrison of the 501st Legion, and I had really
been looking forward to this parade (since it was only about ten minutes
away from my dwelling). Plus, I was going to be putting smiles on so many
children’s faces and grown-ups as well.
 I
was informed by none other than Lord Vader himself (Ted O'Sullivan), that
we should rendezvous at 10:00am at the Centennial Beach parking lot, which
was just blocks away from the heart of downtown Naperville. My dewback
pulled into the parking lot at exactly 10:00am, and I was the first one
there for our Star Wars portion of the parade. By getting there early I
knew I would have plenty of time to put my armor on (which had to be done
out of my car), and because I had a recent mission at the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra this past Friday evening I had some minor repairs to make to my
armor. So, it worked out well for me.
 About
fifteen minutes passed when I saw another fellow 501st member show up, so
I knew then and there that I wasn’t going to be the only one there (not
that I thought I’d be the only one there). Soon after, the area in which
we made our temporary headquarters started filling up with other troopers.
In the end there were about six or seven TIE fighter pilots, three
sandtroopers, one clean stormtrooper, a Jedi, Anakin Skywalker (from
ROTS), Boba Fett, and last but not least Darth Vader. We even had R2-D2 in
our lineup, but due to a bad motivator he was unable to make it through
the entire parade. But, he was well enough to take several photos with
several children who are big fans of the silver and blue celebrity.
Our number was called, and it was time to put the buckets on, load up
our weapons, and prepare for deployment. We moved toward our holding area,
waiting for the final call to start our march, and were stopped by several
women in black holiday outfits. They, of course, wanted to have their
pictures taken with us. There must have been at least seven people taking
pictures of all these women with their Star Wars fans, and Lord Vader was
(yet again) the main star of the attraction. Once the women cooled down
their motivators, it was time for us to get into character. The
sandtroopers looked pure evil with all the dirt that covered our bodies,
Anakin looked possessed with his yellow and red eyes, and after Darth
Vader stopped doing his photo-shoot with those ladies he was ready for
prime-time. Our moment had come.
 Ten
minutes later we were marching through the streets, on a mission to
entertain the children and grown-ups who came out to get into the holiday
spirit. There weren’t as many people watching the parade as there were at
the Racine holiday parade in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, but there was
still a fairly decent turnout. I wasn’t expecting to see that many people
with the way the weather was, but for the time of year it was pretty good
weather in my opinion. I suppose civilians of Earth can’t handle a little
bit of cold and wet weather, but those who could were determined to enjoy
a great parade through the streets of downtown Naperville.
There were many children who were totally in awe when the saw us coming
down the street. We were informed after the parade that the crowd became
alive when they saw us turn the corner, and by bringing such excitement to
these onlookers it put the same amount of excitement in me. However, some
children were scared to the point where you saw tears forming under their
eyes and some were screaming for their parents, but for the most part the
majority of the children were quite excited to see their favorite Star
Wars characters. Darth Vader’s popularity was running strong throughout
the parade as I heard on several occasions, “Look! It’s Darth Vader! Let’s
get a picture of him!”
Unfortunately the parade was over in about thirty minutes, but it was a
most enjoyable thirty minutes because putting on my sandtrooper armor
brings me as close as humanly possible to the Star Wars universe. If
someone asked me to put it on, just so they could see what it looks likes
up close and in person, I’d be more than happy to do that. I might have
had chills today because of the cold, but I also had chills because of the
high excitement levels of being in my armor and hanging out with great
people who love Star Wars just as much as I do. I cannot wait for my next
assignment that is given to me. Until then… may the Force be with you!
Photo Galleries
Click on the links below to see the three different photo galleries.
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