We bribed our intern coordinator.
It’s a testament to how little we pay government workers that Archie took us up on dinner at Taco Shore. It is also a testament to how rampant underage drinking was that our boss let us buy him drinks.
Why did we have to liquor him up with red, white, and blue margaritas?
So, Archie would tell us about the time(s) he won on Jeopardy.
The cranky old man, while considering himself quite the hometown hero, wouldn’t give us details.
The drinks weren’t working, but something else did. Archie ordered dessert. He literally hit our hands with his fork while we kept trying to steal a taste.
What we didn’t know is that Archie is a type 2 Diabetic. It was a terrible, terrible idea for him to order dessert. The sugar had hit his system, and he invited us over to his place. To see the tapes from Jeopardy. Right now! Right then! Let’s go!
Archie lived a block away and Peter and I followed him down some uneven stone steps Archie lived in a basement? He was a grown-up.
It was dark outside and dark because we were in a basement. Our host didn’t make any moves toward a light switch. Along with no interior lighting, there was also no seating, so Peter and I crisscrossed applesauce on the floor.
The Jeopardy appearances were taped on early residential VHS and the TV still had an antenna on it. It was incredibly difficult to see and hear. It didn’t make it any easier that Archie, perched on the tip of the one chair in the room, was talking over the show the whole time.
Telling us what a jackass the guy next to him was. That the woman who eventually ousted him was an idiot. He said that the episodes were taped back to back and contestants had to change into different outfits for each show.
The sugar was eating his brain, and paranoia crept in.
“What you don’t believe me!!!” “HERE!” “HERE are the suits I wore!”
He brought out some silky early 90s suits and ties, preserved forever in dry cleaner saran wrap. That was our cue to leave.
On the whole, it was a successful evening, we got to see Archie tweaked out on Mexican ice cream, saw the Jeopardy suits… But it left us sad.
When we visited his past, we found him still there and living alone in the dark.
You learn something new every day: Alex Trebek sleeps naked – https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Trebek–I-Left-My-Cash-in-San-Francisco-126281588.html
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