Robin Hood of Marshall Heights
There stood the man that he had sought
Thgroughout the wide countree…
There stood the hero of the poor —
Bold Robin Hood, ’twas he!
From
”The World Around Us”
Edited by Gerald Yoakam, M Madilene Veverka, and Louise Abney
I couldn’t believe my eyes — a new longbow, just like Robin Hood’s. And a quiver of steel tipped arrows colored with bands of yellow, red, and green. Just what I wanted for Christmas a month and three weeks after my twelfth birthday. Although I’d hoped with all my heart, little did I expect Mom and Dad would really give someone my age a real bow with serious arrows.
I rubbed my hands over the smooth ash wood, examining the rich finely polished grain. A small label quietly announced this was a 25-pound bow, referring to the force required to pull the bowstring while shooting an arrow — just right for a lightweight like me who was only two inches over five feet tall. Jimmy, Andy, Moose all asked for bows this Christmas. Like Robin Hood, we wanted to form a band of rebels to free the world of oppression.
We weren’t sure who was the Sheriff of Nottingham in our town or the rich people who were Robin’s targets; yet, the forces of evil and cruelty must be around us. What about Milton Rubin, the owner of the American Silk Mills who made people work twelve hours a day, six days a week for minimum pay? Surely, people have suffered from those who have power. Oh, longbow, show us the way to virtue, lead us to the dragon, the fire breathing, clawing, flesh ripping monster so we can take him to his knees with our arrows, make him feel the sting of justice and freedom, so we can free the downtrodden from their shackles.
Marshall Heights shall be our Sherwood Forest, the lair, the stream, the wood, the field where we train our merry band, where we sing jolly songs, where we confront the loathsome sheriff and wrestle the forces of the wicked.
