Most people around today only have a faint recollection of who Gene Autry was. For those of you who do not, he was America’s Singing Cowboy, birthplace Tioga, Texas, near Miss Trixie's home turf. 

Now Ol’ Dutch wasn't born yesterday – a fact often mentioned by Miss Trixie -’ but Gene was before my time and so my only recollection of him is in old reruns of his movies. Only after starting to write this column did, I find out how many things he was actually a part of including owning radio stations, a baseball team, television studio owner, actor, singer, song writer. The man had more talents than you could shake a stick at. 

He made famous the song about Peter Cottontail – although not the first to sing it for public consumption. It was his easy-going voice and popular persona that led the story of the little bunny to the top of the charts. For those of you too young to know and for those of you who could care less, here is a few lines from that song to peruse: 

Here comes Peter Cottontail 

Hopping down the bunny trail 

Hippity-hoppity, Easter's on its way 

Bringing every girl and boy 

Baskets full of Easter joy 

Things to make your Easter bright and gay 

Yes, I know. It was from life during a much simpler time when people were easier to please, I guess, and enjoyed a simple fun song about Easter.  

Easter is coming up next Sunday. The big Day arrives bright and early for church goers. Many a mother will wrestle kids and husbands to Sunday Services and not a few will even go to Sunrise Service on some hill outside of town. Although it may not be as big of a miracle as The Resurrection, getting a family up and around, bathed and dressed and to anywhere before daylight is about the same level of difficulty if you ask Ol’ Dutch. 

It's hard to miss Easter as the Big Box and grocery stores, Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Family Dollar and Save-a-Dollar all have their Easter supplies out months in advance of the actual date.  

I look back fondly on Easter's past, and they all were pleasant, and a time of great memories being made. My Mother would get up early and hide Easter Eggs for us to find and then we would go to church, of course. That was a given for us since my Dad was the Pastor and we kind of had to show up.  

Everyone came to church in new duds and finery.  The women strutted around like a peacock in heat so proud they were of their little brood all decked out in frills.  Another reason it was especially important that our family be there on Easter was to see folks who only came once a year to do the heavy lifting of getting Jesus out of the tomb.  

And true to form, once we got Him out, they never returned until the next year. And speaking of heavy lifting all those once-a-year folks had to carry their sins about for the whole year as they were not addressed weekly and that can weigh a fellow down, let me tell you what.  

And before some of you go off on poor Ol’ Dutch about how the Easter Bunny is a pagan idea substituted for our Christian celebration – I know. But I don't worship Peter, and he does tend to leave me alone the rest of the year. Which is a lot more than I can say for God as He tends to keep tight tabs on me year-round.  

When I mentioned that to someone this past week, they asked me “well how’s that working out for you?” To which I have to heartily admit it's working out extremely well. After all, Miss Trixie can only handle so much of Ol’ Dutch and so having a big God in reserve comes in mighty handy if I say so myself. What with Trixie handling the dailies and God having my back, Ol’ Dutch just may amount to something yet. 

Kevin Kirkpatrick spends his days fishing, hunting, ATVing, hiking or making people laugh. His email is Kevin@TroutRepublic.com. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com.