For years I had a lot of random stuff decorating my bedroom, mainly carryovers from things I had in my college dorm room that really had no meaning.

Now when I look around the room, whether I see something on the walls, on my desk or dresser, I can think of at least one story about that object and a person tied to it.  I think I’m going to share some of those stories, though it’s very possible I’ll get distracted and this will be the first in a one-part series.

Today I want to tell you about Chewbacca.  Anyone worth any pop culture salt knows who Chewbacca is, but you don’t know this one.  He’s much smaller, coming in at about 3 inches in height, but don’t let his size fool you. He’s still a badass.

I got Chewie on Monday, December 29, 1997.  Before you get too frightened at my awesome recall skillz, I have to admit that on my own I would have at best guessed the year.  I was a freshman in high school, and the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., had an exhibit called “Star Wars: The Magic of Myth” (note the very 1997ness of that website).

In a word, it was awesome.  The exhibit had the suits for Chewie and Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, a Stormtrooper and others, along with the models for all the different spacecraft including the greatest ship ever made: the Millenium Falcon.

December 29 was during our Christmas break at school, and I remember my mom and my Nana picking me up from track practice along with my little brother (a huge Star Wars fan).  You needed a ticket to get into the exhibition, and thanks to my penchant for collecting stubs from just about everything I’ve ever been to, I still have that one:

After we made our way through the exhibit, we naturally ended up in the special Smithsonian Star Wars gift shop.  I browsed around for a little bit looking at the admittedly cool stuff, but there was nothing I couldn’t live without.  Nana, however, insisted that she buy me something, so I went over to a series of bins with the smallest items I could find.  They were little figurines of all the major characters, and I settled on Chewie, by far the best character in the series.

For a long time he resided on my various desks, but now has a far better home in my quasi-entertainment center guarding the Blu-ray player.