Robin Hood And The Information Angel

I was looking for an image to put on my Google+ page. I belong to one Vintage Community so, when I saw the above image of Robin Hood from the early 1950s, I thought this would be ideal.

Though a folklore figure, Robin Hood, was something of a hero for me as a young child: he stole from the bad to give to the poor. I used to try and make bows out of canes and arrows out of thin sticks. They weren’t too successful!

Later that day I was cutting back a yew tree which we have in our front garden. It had grown too large and unwieldy. As I was cutting away an elderly gentleman walked past and started talking to me. He told me how he had a friend who used to cut back yew trees for free, as long as he could have the wood. “He wanted them for bows, you know like Robin Hood had,” said the man.

This took me back to childhood again and then I remembered all of the yew trees found in English churchyards. “Any idea, why they are there?” I asked the man. “Something to do with keeping the devil away I think,” he answered.

Later that day I tried to find out why churchyards often had yew trees.

The Plant-Lore web site wrote:

It always amuses me how one thing can lead to another. There I am with a picture of Robin Hood and the next thing someone mentions him to me and so on. This is very similar as per my post The Weird Case Of The Volcano Which Popped Up From A Corn Field. Again I was looking for an image for Google+ and a chain of information came my way.

Thinking about Robin Hood transported me back to how my son used to follow Nottingham Forest football club – the area where Robin lived with his ‘merry men’. I remember taking him to Nottingham and seeing Robin Hood’s statue (right) in the town.

And then (again) I got thinking about being a child, playing Robin Hood and watching a television series at my grandmother’s home – we didn’t have a TV set. Oh yes, there was a song as well:

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men
Feared by the bad, loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green
They vowed to help the people of the king
They handled all the troubles on the English country scene
And still found plenty of time to sing

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood etc.

Trish and Rob of synchrosecrets would probably liken this to the ‘information angel’ doing his or her work. But whatever it’s synchronicity and generated lots of memories of happy times.

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