WINNING! (Part One)

Well folks, our family's week on Family Feud has rolled back around and our shows will air the entire week of March 28 at 1:00 p.m. on Channel 34 locally. If you are out of the OKC area, you can go to http://www.familyfeud.com/, type in your zip code and find your local station. Most of you don't know this, but Family Feud was not my first experience with 'winning' on television, although it was certainly my most successful one.

My first actual TV appearance was when I was about six or seven years old. My mom carted me up to Oklahoma City (from Ada) and I appeared on The Foreman Scotty Show. For those of you that are as OLD as I am, you'll remember it as a local kids show (similar to Ho Ho the Clown) that featured a studio full of kids each week day, with the host, being Foreman Scotty.

Foreman Scotty

That first time that I was on the show, I got to sit on Woody, the Birthday Horse. Yes, of course it was my birthday. That was one of the few perks of having a birthday during the summer when school was out; you were free to skip town, and do special things. After all, it was difficult to invite very many kids to a birthday bash, since they too were out of school, hard to reach (life before FACEBOOK), and often on their OWN family vacations.

The second time that I appeared on the show, my Uncle Rickey went with me (my mom and his mom, Granny Bo, drove us from Shawnee where they lived, up to Oklahoma City for that appearance). Rickey was my uncle, but he was only about three years older than me. Once we got to the studio, there was a shuffling for kids to get seated on the risers there. Being short (it runs on that side of the family), Rickey and I got to sit on the front row. That was one of the few perks of being short; you got to sit on the front row for pictures, choir concerts, and on Foreman Scotty.

I loved Foreman Scotty. He was on every day at 4:30. I always thought that Foreman was a strange first name. It didn't click to me until years later that he was the 'foreman' on the ranch; the Circle 4 Ranch.  Foreman Scotty ALWAYS wore a hat. I think that when I perform and/or sing at the Rodeo Opry, I just don't feel right unless I wear my hat. I blame that on Foreman Scotty (besides, the 'hat' makes me look taller).

Two really exciting things happened every day on The Foreman Scotty Show (for all the kids that were there). Each show they gave away a 'Golden Horseshoe' and a 'Golden Zoo Key'. Now in order to win the 'Golden Horseshoe' you had to EARN IT. The point was for you to make the funniest, most ridiculous face you could make or jump up and down doing the silliest thing you could imagine in order to get the attention of the camera; which in turn had a lasso superimposed on the screen, that panned crazily to and fro until it landed on (lassoed) that special, crazy kid who was making the funniest face (or making the biggest fool of himself). Honestly, it probably would normally go to the cutest little girl or darlingest little boy no matter what they were doing; but we were sure that it was an award based purely on merit and we were both intent on earning it.

As I mentioned, we were on the first row of chairs; in fact I was in the very first seat on the end and Rickey was in the second seat right next to me. During the first commercial break Rickey turned to me and asked me to switch seats with him.  "Why?" I asked. Turns out Rickey was going to be doing some kind of a 'bird thing', with his fists in his armpits, and his elbow-wings flapping (think Red Skelton and the two seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliff for all you fellow old-timers) and he needed the extra room on the end there, for his routine to really take flight. Being the acquiescent little nephew that I was, I switched seats with him. So the time finally came for the 'Golden Horseshoe'. I began to contort my face. Rickey flapped his wings. I stuck out my tongue and turned up my nose. Rickey flapped his wings even harder. And guess what? That's right...neither one of us won! Some little cute girl on the second row left that day with the Golden Horseshoe. We couldn't believe it!

During the next commercial break, we sat there whining like Kobe Bryant looking for a foul call, lamenting to each other about had badly we had gotten robbed. We almost didn't notice when the cameras started rolling again and it was time to award the 'Golden Zoo Key'. We both were startled when they announced that the winner of the 'Golden Zoo Key' was whoever was sitting in SEAT TWO! You see, you couldn't earn the Golden Zoo Key. You couldn't lobby and beg or even hope to perform your way into winning it. The Golden Zoo Key (at least the way we understood it) was a random drawing of a random seat number, and once it was pulled out of a hat (or from whatever orifice they extracted it from), the random child received it as his or her 'lucky' prize. The problem that day was that Rickey HAD been sitting in SEAT TWO. But he, of course, had swapped seats with me, in hopes of securing the 'Golden Horseshoe' and thereby forfeited the winning ticket, as it were, by now sitting in SEAT ONE. In his mind, I had taken his 'Zoo Key'; in his mind, he was supposed to win it; but I got it, since I was sitting in SEAT TWO: his seat. I got what he deserved.

Now I could make all kinds of parallels here but let's start off here:

Isaiah 53:4-6 (New Living Translation) Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Put simply by Paul and Peter: Christ died for our sins.
Put simply by me: He swapped seats with us.

Does that mean we get the 'Golden Gates Zoo Key'? That analogy might be a bit of a stretch although I certainly didn't earn it or deserve it. Perhaps I would have won the key even if I hadn't switched seats (after all, I'm sure I was the 'darlingest little boy' there that day ;). I do know that every time we went to the zoo with that side of the family from then on, and I would pull out my 'Golden Zoo Key' and use it to hear about the animals, Rickey would immediately start in on how it was his key and how I had been sitting in his seat!

Oh the joys of winning!

Conversely, we've all had times in our lives when someone else has gotten something that we felt like we deserved...when we wanted to be the winner, but someone else got the prize. Those times are not nearly as pleasant but are every bit as memorable; and they perhaps shape our character more than winning.

Oh the heartbreak of losing...

(to be continued)