Bingo

Seeing that my life has not been to interesting lately since I have been like the living dead given that my daughter has gotten up every one to two hours for the past month, I haven't had anything really to blog about that was really worth while.. until now.

Over Thanksgiving my husband, daughter, and I went to his parents house for the long weekend. Now to give you a little bit of background, his family lives in a very small town where no one locks their doors, cars, or houses. In fact, his dad leaves his car keys in his car that is stored in the unlocked detached garage. Being from a bigger town/city this is a culture shock to me since we lock our locks and then throw a deadbolt over everything, but I disgress. Both of his grandmas are still alive and his mother's mother only lives one block over from his parents. She constantly pops in to help prepare meals, bring over fruit from the fruit market she works at, or to help clean up. She is on this kick to collect all 50 states worth of quarters. I know she gave my husband a board to store them all in and when each new one gets released she proudly presents us the new quarter to put in our display. Did I mention she has a pistol of a personality and a voice to match? I think at one time my husband told me she has a police scanner and would sometimes go and chase the accidents to find out what is going on around town. She is very active and probably does more running around at 80 something than I do. Furthermore, she has this voice that I can't quite explain but it like an old ladies voice combined with a smokers voice but with not a lot of rasp but carries quite well. It makes dogs love her and kids stare at her in fear or amazement, I haven't figured out which.

In our prior visits she has spoken about going to go play Bingo twice a week with her friend Marsha. I thought it sounded like fun but since she went on Friday and Sunday it never worked out with our schedules. Well low and behold she stopped back by the day after Thanksgiving saying she was waiting to hear if Marsha was going to be feeling alright to go play Bingo. Well I thought this was my big shot and expressed my interest in going. My husbands mom said she would go as well and so it was, we had plans for the night. Turns out Marsha didn't go because she wasn't feeling up to it, so with me behind the wheel my mother-in-law and grandma made our way to Bingo. During the ride I got a little nervous as grandma warned me they didn't like newcomers to win and if I did in fact get a Bingo all the regulars would shoot me evil glances but not to let it bother me. Also she informed me that if you yelled bingo without really having a bingo people would chastize you! So 25 miles of two lane country roads later we arrived at an even smaller town's American Legion where we met by some real characters.

We set our stuff down on the table that grandma always played at and prepared to go upstairs to buy our games. Grandma left her purse on the table with visible money sticking out and walked away! I asked her if she wanted to take her purse and she told me not to worry no one would bother it! (Maybe I need to be more trusting??) Anyway we climbed the stairs to another whole floor of bingo players and got in line to buy our cards. My mother-in-law and I stood back while grandma bought her lot and then she instructed us what to buy. $11 later I had three cards to play for each game. Grandma told me this was good for my first time and she would try to keep an eye on mine as we played. Meanwhile she hauls her 15 cards for each game back to our spot! Watch my cards she did!... after every number that was called she quickly marked all of her cards and then checked mine. I felt I had a little extra time but not enough to really be working 18 cards like she was. During the games every so often she would make remarks under her breath but loud enough for everyone to hear like "I'll don't need a G7 but I could sure use a GD O71." (Of course she didn't abbreviate.) The ladies at the next table were real cards too. One kept sneezing and they kept making remarks at her like "Careful there MaryAnn you might sneeze out your tonsils!"

A couple time I got within 3 balls of winning and each number that was called grandma would lean over and say "is that one of yours?" I said yes twice until someone else called Bingo.. and I tell you what I have never been so nervous in my life to win something. I almost sighed in releif that I didn't win, I mean the pressure! At one point we were all minding our cards, of course grandma still minding hers and mine since she insisted I sit between her and my mother-in-law in case they could see something on my card that I missed. My mother-in-law who isn't a very loud person said quitely, "I think I have a bingo." (You actually know in advance since the TV monitor shows the ball before the announcer calls it.) Well grandma obviously has not lost a bit of her hearing said, "WHAT? YOU HAVE A BINGO?" And then after the announcer officially called her number my mother-in-law quitely raised her hand and said "Bingo." This obviously was not loud enough for grandma since she then proceeds to point, wave, and yell at the attendant, "WE HAVE A BINGO BACK HERE!" I felt like we were in a movie with everyone stopping to stare at us, although they all know her. Low and behold my mother-in-law did end up winning $60! Grandma left the night more than peeved that her number was up next 3 times when BINGO was called robbing her of what she thought were her rightful earnings.

Really I can't wait to go again. What cheap, fun entertainment where really the people watching doesn't get any better. I think next time I will be advanced enough to take on 6 cars per game. We'll see if grandma can keep up!