The last couple days, I've
been building a longbow for a ten year old boy.
To someone whose done
something, anything really, for so many years, it can become just
another day at work. This bow was different . . .
As I built the bow, I began
to think about the boy it was being made for. I wondered if his
experience would be like mine.
I was exposed to Longbows
when I was just seven or eight.
I had ridden a horse down to
visit my Uncle Rollie Burnham. Rollie and his brothers were
Mountain Men. They lived in the Cowiche Creek Drainage up under
Mount Rainier. They fed themselves and their families with what they
could grow, gather, or hunt.
After being stuffed with a
home grown, fried chicken, corn bread and gravy, with all the
trimmings lunch by Rollie's wife, Aunt May, (you could never eat
enough to satisfy Aunt May, her favorite observation was, “Boy if
you don't eat some more you're gonna dry up and blow away!), Rollie
called me over to show me one of his personal treasures; partly
because he knew if I didn't leave the table soon, Aunt May would
feed me so much I would get a stomach ache and partly because Uncle
Rollie had decided it was time for me to see this thing he loved so
much.
With a child’s unbridled
anticipation, I waited for him to bring this “great thing” out of
it's hiding place.
It was an old Longbow.
Rollie said he got it from a man he grew up with in Kentucky. I could
see the name Howard Hill written on it. No Fiberglass, just an old
wooden bow. I had never seen or heard of one before!
Rollie strung it up and
said, “Here, see if you can pull 'er back!” With Rollie
guffawing and laughing at my efforts, try as I might, I couldn't
budge it. Not an inch! You see, that old bow drew 100#!
I might have weighed 60
pounds soaking wet! It wasn't going to happen.
The result of that days
encounter was that my boys heart was challenged. For the rest of the
day, Rollie told me story after story about hunting deer and elk with
that old bow. In my minds eye, I could see him sneaking up on an
old Buck or a bugling Bull Elk, slowly drawing the bow to it's full
weight and watching the arrow fly silently through the air to it's
intended mark!
Rollie was one of my boyhood
heroes. Heck he still is!
I decided, that very day, I
wanted to grow up and be just like Uncle Rollie, hunting and living
off the land with my longbow and horse.
As I mused on these things,
I wondered what doors of imagination this bow would open for the ten
year old boy I was building it for.
I finally got my first bow
when I was ten years old. It wasn't much of a bow by today’s
standards. Just a non-discript longbow that pulled 35 pounds. When
I took that bow out, suddenly I was transported to a new world!
One moment, I was with my
Uncle, up on Mount Rainier, chasing Elk. Next, in Bakers Canyon, on
Cowiche Creek, hunting big Mule Deer and Blacktail Bucks!
As I emptied my quiver of
arrows, (I only had three), I arrived in the “Yukon” facing down
Grizzly bears and Giant Bull Moose!
The best and most exciting
times were in “Africa” hunting dangerous game! Lions, Leopards,
Elephants, Cape Buffalo . . . (These hunts actually took place in
my Parents back yard and the “Big Game,” well, they were my
Mother's trees and shrubs . . . Got a few lickens for that, but
Trophy hunting is expensive I guess).
For me, the Longbow has
always been a door to the imagination.
I wondered, as I built
Jaxon's little bow, if it will be the same for him; I think it will.
Uncle Rollie has been gone
for a lot of years now and I'm finally figuring out what he knew when
he showed me that old longbow so many years ago. He showed me, that
day, how to keep my child’s heart through all that life could and
would dish out.
Do you know a kid that needs
a dream? Introduce him or her to the Longbow and a quiver of arrows.
Their lives will never be the same and neither will yours!
Jaxon's older sister with
her “door” to the imagination.
A letter from Jade and Jaxon's Father .
. .
Dear Darryl,
“Thank you for your generous offer on
the bows. When Jade saw that bow,and then shot it, a whole new light
glowed from her. When we were bringing the bow back to you, I could
feel her disappointment.
Thank you so very much, raising 5 boys
and a young lady takes a lot of doing. Archery, when starting out is
expensive, with your help, we now have a young lady who is all smiles
and full of questions on this wonderful adventure of traditional
archery.
She has made herself a quiver and her
own arrows since we have returned and has been shooting her bow named
" Hope".
To tell you thank you is a
understatement, I cannot find words that express what needs to
be said.
I have shot her bow and the performance is awesome along
with the graceful beauty of the bow.
Thanks for making this
possible!
Troy Rider
