Fayetteville resident Vickie Harps can’t reveal what she won on “The Price is Right” until after the television show airs on Thursday, March 5, but the normally dignified nursing director will say the excitement of being called to “come on down” caused her to act out of character.
“They called my name and I lost my mind,” Harps said from her Fayetteville home about a month after the taping in Los Angeles. “You would have thought I had won a car. It was just so funny. It was so out of character.”
And that was just when her name was called, not when she won a prize that is something everyone knows she adores.
“Even when I’m not working, I try to maintain some level of professionalism,” said the 49-year-old elderly care nurse. “I deal with the public. I would never want the people I serve to see me in a light where they wouldn’t respect me. I take care of people’s parents.”
Harps and her patients all watch “The Price is Right” every day. It’s a habit she picked up in 1997 when she was caring for her own mother near the end of her life.
“It’s a lot of fun for them,” she said, adding that she has managed to keep secret the news that she even taped the show. “I haven’t told them,” she said. “They are going to be so shocked when they see me.”
Harps believes everyone who knows her will be shocked not just at her excitement, but also that the prize she landed is something everyone knows she loves.
“When they opened the doors, I acted like it was a car and boat together,” Harps said of the showcase she won. “I was yelling and screaming like it was a SUV and a boat. It was not anything like that. You’re really going to laugh when you see what I won. It was hilarious.”
By the time Harps got to the parking lot after the taping, a sister who was traveling with her had already notified other family members that Harps had played the game and they all began calling. “My brother said he heard Ellie Mae Clampett was on ‘The Price is Right,’” Harps said. “You’re just so excited. I have never won anything in my life. It’s surreal. It’s like an out of body experience. It’s so fast and so unreal. My sister said I was country, ghetto and alley all in one.”
It’s definitely “the Vickie nobody sees,” she added.
Even so, Harps believes it is the most fun she’s ever had on a vacation and couldn’t say enough nice things about star Drew Carey and the show staff.
“The people were so nice,” she said. “Very, very nice. He’s (Carey) very down to earth. Very funny. During commercial break he talks to the audience and finds out about them.”
The show airs every week day from 11 a.m. to noon on CBS, which is WGCL-TV, channel 46 in the Atlanta area.
