(Knitting is slow these days. So, we enter story time!)
My Jeopardy Journey
Chapter 1
(in which our heroine takes the contest test in San Fransisco)
All my life I have loved game shows. I used to play 100,000 Pyramid with my mother during the summer and days I was home sick. Wheel of Fortune - early days - I loved it. Joker's Wild, Tick-Tack-Dough, Hollywood Squares, Match Game, Family Feud - yep. However, one game show has always held a special place in my heart- Jeopardy.
Ah, Jeopardy. The game show for smart people. Where people got paid money for coming up with jaw-droppingly amazing answers. I loved that show. Smart kid in small Midwest town - a place where you were rewarded and lauded for being smart seemed amazing.
Fast forward a bit...
Around 9 years ago, while my husband, daughter and I were living in Cupertino, CA, one of the local stations held a contestant search. (KGO-7? I forget). I sent in a postcard, and a month or so later was invited into SF to take the test.
One problem - I had yet to drive up into the city. Ever. We had only lived in the Bay Area for about a year, and I have this... thing.. about city driving. In addition, I had only been up to the city once. My husband didn't know the area at all either (he also had only been to the city a couple times). My co-workers rallied around me - they got me good directions, pointed out good parking, and best of all - gave me directions out of there. (not that I can follow directions that well - but that's for later)
So.
I drive up to San Fransisco, and promptly get a bit turned around. I find the hotel, and run in to the testing location just in time - if you're late, the Jeopardy folks don't let you in. Whew - but I'm now a bit rattled.
Trying desperately to settle down, I listen to the description of the test. 50 questions, needing 35 right answers to pass. The test questions a recording of Alex Trebek reading questions of a hardness of the bottom of the board in Double Jeopardy (at the time, that would have been the 800 and 1000 questions). He reads the category, then the question. (It was just like playing the TV game!) You fill in the blank on your answer sheet - which consists of 50 entries of "What is ________________" so you remember to answer in the form of a question.
I remember knowing a bunch of them, but being stumped often as well.
While the testing crew was grading the tests, they had a surprise for us. Alex Trebek was there to answer questions! This was seriously cool - in the same room as Alex Trebek.
After that, they came in and read the names of those who passed. I didn't. Holding to the memory of being in the same room as Alex Trebek, I head back to my car, and try to find my way out of SF. Somehow, I manage it. (I will never forget going down one of those _really_ steep streets while lost, though - the feeling as you drive straight ahead and the ground drops out from under you is freaky!)
Next - The Jeopardy Journey continues with Chapter 2 - in which our heroine takes the contestant test again, in Minnesota, in the Mall of America.
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