One of the reasons I love the Game Show Network's Black and White Overnight show is that I often find myself remembering moments from programs I haven't seen in over 35 years, and revisiting matters that puzzled my young brow. The other night, they ran an I've Got A Secret from 3/7/1966 on which a poem was read. In those prehistoric, pre-VCR days, you only got to hear many things once on television, and I recall liking the poem and wishing I had a copy of it. But I didn't, and there seemed to be no way to get one, so I wrote up my own clumsy, not-as-good recollection of it and performed it one day in class when called upon to recite.
I no longer have a copy of my version but now, thanks to Game Show Network and TiVo, I was able to get it. A poet named Willits (or maybe Willets) Frost was its author and here is what he wrote…
That one should leave no stone unturned
Is something I quite early learned
But with so many stones around
I could not turn them all, I found
I spotted terns over the sea
One turned around and spotted me
For spotting the best suit I owned
I tried to leave no tern unstoned.
Not much to add, except that in watching these old game shows, I'm amazed at how much I remember. I can't recall what happened three nights ago on Leno or Letterman but somehow, I can remember moments from a 1966 game show. I don't know if that says more about the shows or about me or about the way TV impacts us when we're young. I'm guessing it's All of the Above.