Between The Bridges — Who Knew?
Last Sunday saw the return of B-I-N-G-O to Broad Channel’s V.F.W. Post #260 on Shad Creek Road. I’ll be the first to admit that I have always thought that B-I-N-G-O was either the name of a farmer’s dog or a game invented by religious organizations dedicated solely to allowing our senior citizens to legally gamble away their social security earnings by allowing them to purchase a “get out of sin” card at the front door.
That being said, the air temperature was a balmy 36 degrees so I decided to stroll up to the hall shortly after 1:00 p.m. to see how things were working out. The first thing that struck me was that the population of gamers was almost evenly spread between both men and women. The group’s age spread also included the expected senior citizen category but also included both young and middle aged Bingophiles. It had never dawned on me that young people could (or would) play Bingo. I always envisioned an age minimum, you know, a picture of someone’s grandma holding a sign with an arrow pointing to herself stating – “You must be this old to play!”
Last week in this column I may have mentioned that the popularity of B-I-N-G-O is based on the fact that it is a social game, where players happily interact with each other with a sense of congenial camaraderie. In hindsight, I may have been a tad off with my “happy-happy” description of the Bingo Hall’s atmosphere.
The tables were filled with people with heads bowed, eyes scrupulously examining their Bingo cards, their hands grasping a magic marker to record each called number. By the way, I was schooled by one player who was playing several cards at once that the markers are called “dabbers” by the more experienced players. I guess she was an experienced player as she was armed with a “dabber” in both hands, a “double fisted dabber” if you will. During the game she sounded like an old IBM Selectric Typewriter, “dabbing” her numbers with both hands on all of her cards. The only other sounds in the Hall were the rattle of the turning bingo number cage followed by the caller announcing the next pulled number until someone ultimately threw their hands in the air and yelled “BINGO!” followed by a loud collective groan interspersed with the occasional “Damn it!”
Someone would circulate throughout the hall in between games selling raffles and 50/50 tickets to assuage the gambling fever of the losers. I was advised that this person is referred to as a “seller.” Years ago when I worked in law enforcement we referred to them as a “pusher.”
With each new game the Bingo Master assumed her position and began calling numbers as fast as she could (the natives grow restless when she dawdles). At one point assistance had to be called in for one player who was attempting to play 40 cards at once and who, unfortunately, was not a “double fisted dabber.”
All kidding aside, many thanks to Gail Waldhein, Kathleen Reardon Savino, Eileen Russel and of course the Bingo Master herself, Cookie Daley of the V.F.W.’s Ladies Auxiliary for making this a great day for all who attended!
Broad Channel, why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
Contact Information: Email – rtbetweenthebridges@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment