Bingo: 24 Ways to Win

Recently, Shells and I went to play bingo at a hall near us. This was the first time I'd played bingo since I was in Catholic grade school. I had fond memories of this game and Shelley had mentioned playing it periodically in attempts to win money, so we went. This particular hall offered cash prizes all night, including a $1,000 prize for the coverall card at the end of the night.

When we pulled into the lot (behind a Coach bus laden down with bingo-bag-wielding folk), we were immediately overwhelmed by how crowded it was.

"Surely all these people aren't here just for bingo," I said, but as we walked inside, we learned that was indeed the case. Buffet tables with rigatoni, salads, and bread slices for $6 a meal (pass), the perfume reminiscent of my grandmother lingering in the air, and the knowledge that we were easily the youngest people in there added to the feel.

We purchased our cards and doppers and sat down, taking it all in. I pulled out the Trolls I had stuffed in my pocket (a suggestion by my friend Liz) and set them on the table in front of us after noticing more than a few other people with varying good luck charms. Besides, these trolls had come as a gift alongside the movie after my "Trolled" blogpost, and even found their way into my lunch bag, so I felt it was appropriate.

"Put those away! Seriously babe!" Shelley hissed. "I can't believe you brought those!"

I sat there in my usual staunch refusal to budge, and they remained there as Shelley muttered about Roseanne episodes and bingo ladies.

The experience was fun, overall. It went on for nearly four hours, with a handful of workers on a constant loop over the aisles between the tables like those ducks on a loop at a carnival game or something. The whole time they walked, they yelled, hustling players for tickets for raffles, scratch off cards, additional playing cards...

"I'm going to hear these calls in my nightmares tonight," Shells quipped.

The callers went so quickly we could barely keep up, dabbing away at numbers with hardly any time to talk to each other in between. I was cracking up. Between the two of us, we played 42 cards at any given time. We didn't win a cent, and more than once made half-serious jokes about having to practice high-speed bingo at home. Additionally, we learned that there were now apparently 24 ways to get a standard bingo-- whatever happened to standard, good old across, up and down, or diagonal??? We were probably getting bingos and not realizing it.

In spite of all of that, it was a blast. We were out together, taking a break from the work school sleep cycle that has been my life the last 7 months, and we enjoyed it. We laughed, we did something new, and the people-watching was prime.

The bright side:
The trolls weren't good luck charms, but they did hold our cards in place under the blowing air conditioning.