Here we are… Day 31 of 31 Days of Halloween 2013 here on The Rock Father – Halloween Day! There’s a lot of “threes” involved in this one, with Halloween falling on the date of my third-ever Throwback Thursday since picking up that torch earlier this month. For the Grand Finale of 2013, I’m spinning things back three decades, to this exact date 30 years ago. October 31, 1983. STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI had just been released the previous May, the third film in what would later become known as the original STAR WARS TRILOGY. It was that Halloween that I would first don my Ben Cooper Darth Vader Halloween Costume, taking to the streets as Lord Vader… wielding a green, Luke Skywalker lightsaber. Not film-accurate, but I worked with what I had.
Pictured: Left-to-Right – Neighbors Lesley and Frankie, my sister, Mandy as Strawberry Shortcake, and a pre-Rock Father me as Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith!
That Vader costume would serve me well… eventually being worn for a few different Halloween events over the course of a couple of years. The cape would at one time get ripped by some little a-hole in our school gymnasium, the same little a-hole that would end up moving in across the street from us and become my friend, Jeff. It’s interesting to think that in 1983 I was there… in 1993 I was there… and in 2013 I’m sitting here at Rock Father HQ raising two awesome little girls, both of whom are sleeping as I type this blog entry. Actually… since we’re going by “threes,” there’s one decade missing… 2003. What was I doing on October 31, 2003? If you must know, this…
I still have (and wear) that GI JOE jersey regularly. Difference is, I can’t button it anymore since I’ve gained more that a few pounds. I need to fix that. Accenting the “costume” above is a long-sleeve CLUTCH shirt, and a BUCKETHEAD-style KFC bucket, complete with FUNERAL sticker. Who knew that six years after taking that photo, I’d become a Dad? Certainly not this guy.
Happy Halloween!
