1982 F150 stalls at stops

Today I acquired a 1982 F150 with a 302 engine, 4 brl. Edelbrock carb. The truck starts and idles just fine, but when I come to a stop, try to give it gas to go it dies. It starts right back up, and I have to rev it high a couple of times then put it in gear and it will finally go. When I got it home I let it idle a few minutes and tried playing with the air and fuel mix but don't know what I'm doing, really. It seems I can hear a hiss, and when I was reaching for the air/fuel screws I got a little shock on the hand from the distributor. We want to use this truck as a farm truck, and plan to get a manual for it, but wanted some suggestions as to what might I might check for the cause of it stalling.

That kind of behavior would have me first thinking a vacuum leak. Since that engine didn't come with that carb, not only could the leak be from a vacuum line, the gasket under the carb could also be leaking.