I'm looking for two stories:

1. Archie and Reggie annoy the girls with puns, such as handing a watch to the other one and saying that they're "just passing time." This is an elaborate plan to trick the girls into thinking that "playing the field" just refers to baseball, when the boys are actually out on dates with other girls.

2. Archie sneaks out of the house to buy some loose-leaf paper. The gang is confused about why it has to be done in secret, so Archie shows them that his parents pile on extra chores (pick up dry cleaning, buy razor blades, etc.) if Archie is heading downtown.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

The trouble is that with plots like those, I could have read one of those stories less than a month ago somewhere, and I still couldn't tell you exactly where, even if I was sure I read it. I've got boxes full of Archie Double Digests, Jumbo Comics Digests, Giant Comics Digests, and 1000-Page Comics Digests. Plus just about every classic Archie TP and HC collection, but none of those are indexed in any way that I could find something even if I was looking for it myself, unless I read it REALLY recently and was going strictly on hunches as to where.

Someone's got to have an absolutely phenomenal memory to be able to remember all the plots of the (probably hundreds, if not thousands) of Archie stories they've read, and then exactly where they read it. In fact I'd say that the main reason ACP gets away with reprinting so many stories over and over again ("Oh, this one I know I've read before.") is that you don't remember them until you actually start re-reading one again... THEN it rings a bell. But even then you probably won't remember exactly WHERE you read it before... just that you have read it.

When I see questions like this it always makes me wonder "WHY are THOSE stories important to someone?" They seem just like regular Archie story plots - it's not like Betty all of a sudden fell in love with Jughead or something really unusual. The answer is probably something simple like "Those are a couple of the first Archie stories I can ever remember reading." But it always leaves me feeling curious what it was about the story that motivated someone to try so hard to track it down.

Fair enough. I guess it's a bit of a shot in the dark. I figured there's always a chance that someone had come across the stories recently, or maybe someone will remember this question if the stories are reprinted in a future issue that I don't see.

You are correct. They are some of the first stories I remember reading. My family never got rid of Archie comics, so there are a few large bins of them in our basements. Somehow, it seems like an issue or two went missing. I've still got most of the stories that got me hooked on Archie comics, but those are the two that stand out that I'd love to track down someday.