Today, everyone enjoyed the early-Easter egg hunt at Kater's place. Sixty kids and their parents show up, egg-gathering baskets in hand, gleefully scouring the back yard for the 82 dozen eggs hidden there, kiss beers, and eat Smith's cookies. Many of the families have made an annual event of it - girls showing up in their pastel Easter dresses gingerly tiptoeing for eggs in the ivy, and boys racing each other to find every last egg, then comparing their sugary haul Halloween-style.
There's four coveted grand prizes for the four finders of the mysterious and at-times fiendishly hidden golden eggs. There's a multicolored balloon archway. Beneath, Kater hired a starving student to pose with the families for pics in a 50's era polyester Bunny suit. There's wacky glasses to wear and necklaces and ribbons for the winners of the egg toss and egg-on-a-spoon races.
It's a great event. Americana party time. Old school small town holiday networking for the parents. A rush for eggs, a sugar rush, then rush home for the CMAs. For the families, it's easier than attending a birthday party; requiring no more time than one, and no present. And the whole family feels good about attending.
My hat's off to the Katers of this world. Who vacates a slot in their annual budget to buy 82 dozen plastic eggs and the candies to fill them just so others can find and enjoy them?
The same sort of people who volunteer to pick up trash along a section of highway that doesn't sport a sign saying "This Section of YourCrapOutYourWindow Highway maintained by..."
The same people who make and take dinner to the family who's got a sick mother that week.
The same people who mow their neighbor's lawn in addition to mowing their own, because they know their neighbors are out of town and won't have time to get to that chore.
While everyone is scrambling just to show up for church and feeling like they've done their duty by attending, there are others who arrived early to prep the room, play the music, do whatever needed doing - and who stay later to undo all what was undone.
Some are coaches for their kids' teams, more than merely shuttling them to practice and games.
Some people try to stop fights when they see them happening - stepping between the victim and the perpetrators at their own risk - rather than standing back, holding up their videotaping cell phone like a little shield.
Like Kater, some people are out there, sacrificing to make good things happen. There's some good eggs in the world - I hope I am one of them.
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