Happy Trails

Back when I was a lad and my hound dog was a pup, Saturday mornings usually found me walk'n up that dirt road that led to the only TV in the neighborhood.

Don't ya see it was there in that old homestead owned by one of the best neighbors on the planet word has it they were good Catholic folks. Anyway, several of us young'uns would invade their hospitality just in time to see Roy Rogers and Trigger get the bad guys. Sometimes his wife Dale joined in the chase on Buttermilk the buckskin.

As I grew older and life happened, busy logg'n, family, the memories faded some but never left altogether.

Decades passed and me and the wife was in Arizona one winter and decided to get on down to the Roy Rogers Museum in California. We weren't disappointed.

There was mounted Trigger, Trigger Jr. and all of Roy's family's story. The 1929 Dodge truck they came west in. The shoe shop he once worked in. His guns--a lot of guns. Pictures and music of the Pioneers. A theater running with their life and family.

It was something I'll tell ya.

His wife was tell'n when ol' Trigger died she thought they buried that horse. Then found out Roy had him mounted. She was so mad and told him when he died she'd have him mounted and stuck on that horse. Roy replied, "Just make sure I'm smiling!"

Ol' Trigger is now owned by RFD TV. And is at their headquarters.

Roy's wife became a Christian first. It took Roy a while. He said the suffering of children bothered him. He had special shoes put on Trigger and took him to hospitals and care centers to cheer up many with serious illnesses. We saw some of it on the theater.

They gave their God given talents and money to many causes. One being "Happy Trails Children Foundation" in Apple Valley, California. There they take in many abused children and give them a home and care. God knows there's no shortage of neglected young people. We like to give them support.

I couldn't help myself and bought many items in the gift shop. As I was pay'n for them, behind the gal was a five-foot cardboard cutout of Roy rear'n up on Trigger. She saw how I stared at it and sez, "Sir, would you like to have that?"

Would I like to have that! She gave it to me. It's on the wall here in the barn.

Just before Roy passed he sez to his caregiver, "It's been a long, long trail."

Unless the Lord comes to take His own away we will all go down that long, long trail. Hopefully, knowing the Savior.