I Was A Top Card Winner!

Several years ago....and I do mean several(kind of like 18)....when Kat was in 6th grade I was on a game show.  Amanda and I had gone to Nashville and went to a taping of a talk show with the Forrester Sisters and while we were standing outside waiting to be let in we took a trivia quiz for a TNN game show called Top Card that was posted on the wall.  We took it and did very well....and obviously were talking too loud because the shows producer came out and asked us to come inside and take a quiz.  We did...and they said, "Don't call us...we'll call you."  Well, I have heard that before but we went back to Alabama and waited.  Amanda called me one day several weeks later and said she had heard from the show and she was going to be a contestant in March.  I was delighted for her....but disappointed for me.  The next day....my principal, Dr. Mickey Dunaway, called me into his office and told me I had a phone call from Nashville.  It was the TV show and they wanted me to be a contestant too....They had talked to him and told him I would need to be off for a few days.  How exciting!  I was instructed to bring 5 changes of clothes and be there the day after Amanda....so we went together.  Top Card was on TNN for a few years.  It was a trivia card show based on blackjack.  You had to choose a category, answer a trivia question and then either take the card it gave you, choose another from the card pile, or freeze.  This all sounded simple enough.  I was pretty good at blackjack....and am a trivia nut.  On our way up to Nashville we asked each other questions from the Trivial Pursuit packs.  Nashville is a five hour drive....and that is a lot of questions.  While Amanda was taping Missy, Randy and I sat in the studio audience and watched.  It was so nerve wracking.....and fun.  I watched the ins and outs of the show so I would be prepared for the next day. Kat and her dad came up for my taping.  Her principal let her be absent so she could experience being in a studio audience.  She had a blast.  The next day dawned and I went to the studio just as Amanda had and was sent directly to make-up.  This was a treat for me....I don't wear make-up.  When the make-up girl finished I could barely open my mouth and my face weighed a ton.  The show started and they had me standing on a box because I was playing against two tall men and my height was throwing the camera off.  I won the first game.  Whoo hooo....I thought I would have to come back the next day.....but as we broke for lunch....I was instructed to go to wardrobe and change into one of the other outfits I brought....and then go straight to makeup.  Day two was filmed right after lunch.  It was a closer match....but I won again.  It was now 3:00 in the afternoon.  I just knew we would call it a day and I would come back tomorrow.....but nope.  I was told to once again report to wardrobe and makeup...and I did as I was told.  Day three began taping at 3:30.  I lost this time around.  I hate Scobby Doo.  The question that cost me the game was...."Who responds to the question....Where Are You?"  The answer was of course...Scobby Doo.  I left with a new perspective on how you freeze when you are on television.  For a long time after this my friends gave me Scooby Doo related items.  I left Nashville with 8600.00 in prizes.  I had two sewing machines, a gorgeous chandelier, 2 cameras, a vaccuum cleaner, a years supply of Pasta Mama pasta products (it really is 365 boxes of pasta), a huge entertainment center, a Lazy Boy Sofa, and some other stuff I can't remember.  It was so much fun when UPS and the USPS began delivering my goods.....and then the other shoe fell.  I got my IRS statement for the taxes I was going to have to pay on the goods....to the tune of like 75% luxury tax.  I nearly died.  I donated almost all of the stuff to charities.  Chalk one up for my bucket list.  I had always wanted to be on a game show....and be a winner.  The only thing lacking was winning the car....but sigh....that just gives me something else to dream for.  Never say never about anything....you never know when you will be in the right place at the right time.....and you too could be a game show contestant!  Happy Thursday!