Let me begin this article with a bit of trivia—This man was the original host of Jeopardy before Alex Trebek. (Answer: Who was Art Fleming?) Correct.
One of my earliest memories of watching television was watching Art Fleming host the original Jeopardy. If you search Google, you can find more information on Art Fleming, and you can watch clips of the original Jeopardy game show on YouTube. I just finished watching one. It is interesting to see how the show functioned so well in the 1960s and 1970s without a lot of the modern effects that the show presently has.
I can remember being a freshman at Lincoln Memorial University beginning Fall Quarter 1983. I was talking with some friends one day, and mentioned that I wished Jeopardy would return to television. I did not know at the time that Jeopardy was returning in a matter of days. It was another of those small things in the 1980s that reminded me that wishes do sometimes come true, that God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world.
My administrative assistant asked me at lunch today if I could return to any decade which it would be. I talked it out and decided that for me the 1980s seemed ideal. My life changed more during the 1980s than any other decade. Interestingly, I have never been a person who either welcomed or embraced change, though I have always realized that change is an inevitable part of life.
There was one thing that remained constant for me throughout the 1980s, even lasting into the first half of the first decade of the 21st century—Mother still served pinto beans in the old familiar green bowl. Every week of my childhood, other than the weeks that she was with my father in Knoxville during his battle with cancer, every Monday Mother would cook a big enough pot of pinto (soup) beans to last until Friday. She always served them in the same glass bowl, white on the inside and mint green on the outside. I still have that bowl in my garage shed, and it is one of my most treasured possessions. Mother was a connoisseur when it came to using Lay’s Clover Leaf Brand Pure Lard to season her pinto beans and cornbread. If it hadn’t been for those beans and that corn bread, I’d never have lived to enjoy the pleasures of the 1980s.
During the 1980s, the Pinto (car, not bean) was still on the pole at Sexton’s, Joe McCoy became pastor of the First Baptist Maynardville, I graduated high school, enrolled in college, Jeopardy returned to television, I received a Bachelor’s degree, got my first teaching job, and fell truly and madly in love for the first time. Reagan was president, and I believed then and still feel that he was the Lincoln of my lifetime. For a Lincoln enthusiast like me, being enrolled in a college named for him and surrounded by historical artifacts of his life and the Civil War was heaven on earth. Even the music of the 1980s couldn’t be beat!
I daresay there aren’t many people who remember Art Fleming hosting Jeopardy. Indeed, I’d say that most people believe that Alex Trebek always hosted the show up until his death a few months ago. I first remember Alex Trebek as host of another television game show, High Rollers. He displayed the same warm geniality on High Rollers that made his years of hosting Jeopardy so enjoyable to a generation of loyal viewers. If you go on YouTube and access the July 4, 1975 episode of High Rollers (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt9ZNqy-ZDM, Retrieved April 6, 2021), you will see Alex Trebek in an afro! On that episode, I found it interesting that one of the prizes was a thousand gallons of gasoline! That was a herald back to the energy crisis of the 1970s. I wouldn’t mind winning that prize right now myself, especially in light of the recent hike in gasoline prices in just one month!
Interestingly, I learned from YouTube that both Alex Trebek and Art Fleming died from the same cause (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaODdqk0DkI, Retrieved April 6, 2021). Since Alex Trebek’s passing, Jeopardy has seen several guest hosts, and it seems there are several more to come in the next few weeks. It reminds me of the search for a new pastor in a Baptist church. It seems that churches looking for a pastor usually do one of two things—jump at the first candidate due to uncertainty/insecurity, or try out so many potential pastors that it seems forever before a new pastor is elected. The First Baptist of Maynardville has gone through ten men who have served as either pastors or interim pastors during my 55 year life span. It seems Jeopardy is now destined to go through that same number of guest hosts in less than one year!
In closing, it seems life is in so many ways a game of Jeopardy. We don’t know which categories will pop up, and we don’t always know our fellow contestants. Just when we think we have it licked, a new game presents new categories and contestants who compete with us for final jeopardy. These changes are inevitable, so we have two choices—adapt and enjoy, or resist and be miserable. Sometimes to forge ahead, perhaps we need to seek a new game show on which to compete.
Until next time, I leave you with a trivia question from my storehouse of email wisdom—How long did the Hundred Years’ War last? Read me next week in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.