Snow blanketed us this morning. In the beginning of winter this is exciting. It is beautiful, quiet and clean. As I was looking out the window, I noticed it was framed by our Christmas tree. The tree was a soft glow in an otherwise dark room. The sun was just coming up, giving the outside a blue hue. It was a simple moment, but one that I enjoyed and thought was so pretty.
It was a quiet day in the house. I do love to listen to the sibling banter going on. “Mom, Ethan burped at me.” Ha ha ha it cracks me up. What a big brother thing to do. “Mom, I think his burp went in my mouth.” I am dying at their banter. They seem to be laughing and joking through it too. Ethan gets a sly smile at the sheer thought he could have annoyed Avery. I just love it.
Avery and I tested the waters with Bingo at the Elks club. This proved to be the best idea. We basically walked in and I said “I have money, tell me what I need to do.” They pointed me in the direction of a counter. They detained Avery. They needed to see her ID. Luckily she had it.
The man at the door basically was interrogating her about her age, and we joked that he was going to frisk her and get a DNA sample. This proves to be a very important step later on in the evening.
We were outsiders, but the workers were quite helpful, welcoming and friendly. They were rattling off the different cards we needed and one game was a postage stamp, one was odds and evens, one game was an HB game, all these bingo terms I was not familiar with. Couple that with a terrible memory, I wasn’t going to remember what anything meant.
We took our handful of cards and walked across the room to a table off to the side and asked if we could sit with some ladies. They were a smaller group and very nice. The one lady was so helpful catching us up on our bingo terms and what each game meant. They were also hilarious. Avery and I equated them to hens in the barn yard.
Each game the nice lady would make sure we were doing the right cards and she answered any of our questions.
The hens were quietly commenting on things going on in the room. Their snide remarks were funny, and I am glad we got to sit near them. Playing bingo has a lot of unsaid rules, one being that people like it QUIET! Kind of an introverts ideal game.
Of course, human nature introduced Mrs. Loud mouth. Mrs. Loud mouth wasn’t even that loud. But the hens had their feathers ruffled.
“She is so loud, I am glad she is sitting so far away from us.” “Why is she being so loud? I bet she is deaf. She would have to be deaf to talk that loud.” All said in a tone of disgust. Avery and I giggled. Mrs. Loud mouth was loud enough that we could hear her, but not always make out what she said. She sometimes would laugh. How dare she has FUN at a GAME!
As numbers were being called one by one, there were waves of rumblings in the crowd. One lady YELLED “SHUT UPPPPPPP!” Woah. Cut throat! It was followed by murmurs of judgement from the players. They were divided murmurs, some in favor of her message and some not.
Of course someone’s phone went off at full blast, with an 80’s song that people started singing to.
The culture of this group of adults as a whole was hysterical. The evening was full of bodily noises. If a bingo was called, groans, loud dramatic sighs and phrases like some swear words or “God damn it” we frequently used. Everytime, Avery and I would quietly joke about the Christmas Spirit in the room.
I would describe this group as cut throat bingo junkies. Avery won a game. She called out bingo. The man worker (that checked her ID) came over to call off her numbers and verify the bingo. Someone in the crowd yelled out “is she even old enough?”
I termination came and it became a ghost town. Everyone rushed outside for a smoke break. When they returned, there was a smiley hie in the room.
The bingo worker was livid at the question and SNAPPED at this person. “Yes! She is old enough. I checked her ID myself. DID YOU? NO! So be quiet.”
I was impressed at how this man had Avery’s back with the bingo hecklers. The hens at the table were making snarky remarks about the person that asked the question. They even were accusing them of being a sore loser, etc! We are talking about a sore loser over Avery’s big win of $8.30 caused such a scene.
In the next game, a winner came from the direction of Mrs. Sore Loser. One of the hens yelled out. “Check her ID”.
As the games were being played, I told Avery to yell out bingo (on a full board game) after 3 numbers were called just to see what would happen. We giggled about being escorted out by the bingo mob.
We WILL be going back. We even know the flow now and can help others in our group with our pass it along mentality.
I think everyone needs a little bit of bingo with chatter from the hens in their life. At the end, the nice lady said “we hope you come back.” Ummm…yes please! This is the kind of drama I NEED in my life.
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