Week 1 - And BINGO was his name-o!

For my first "event" of the year, I decided to take a couple of friends with me to check out the local bingo barn. (That's really what it's called!)

Let me start by saying, my expectations were all sorts of wrong. I envisioned Bingo Night as a crowded but friendly room full of blue-haired ladies all patiently waiting to hear the next number called and trying their best to get five in a row on the Bingo card. I guess I was thinking of the Hollywood version??

Here's the way it really works...and it ain't pretty. (Funny, but not pretty!)

The room was far from crowded. The guests were far from Blue-haired ladies...or patient. The "bingo board" was anything but a simple card, and five in a row? HA! If only it were that easy.

Upon entering, we promptly purchased our paper bingo "sheets" which are basically 9 bingo boards in one. We were then informed that if we didn't have a "dauber" (which I assumed was a cross between a "doo-hickey" and a "thing-a-ma-bob") that we could purchase them at the next table over. The blue-haired lady at that next table (okay, so there were a FEW of them) asked what color dauber we wanted; all the while I'm trying to figure out what the beep a dauber is! I got yellow though - my favorite color - then we proceeded to find a place to sit.

Once seated, the real fun began. The "caller" (if that's even the right term) began talking on the microphone at the front of the room...something about horse-races, pool-somethin'-or-another...who knows?! I guess it was clear that the three of us were confused because some lady walking by said, "He hasn't started Bingo yet. He'll tell ya when he's gonna."

Uhm. Okay. So we played with our daubers until then.

Finally, Bingo starts and it's like some sort of alien bingo. I thought five in a row was standard for the game, but apparently there are all manners of configurations you can have. I finally figure out which squares I'm trying to get and the game is off and running. Trying to find B4 on NINE different cards is not as easy as it sounds. (My friends can attest to this, as I was not the only slow one). You know how in college it's always easy to spot the freshmen because they're wandering around like lost foreigners? Well we were the equivalent of freshmen bingo-goers and it was very obvious. One guy walked by our table and said, "Man, I've never seen such serious bingo players." That sent us into a fit of laughter and probably caused us to miss a few numbers. I can only imagine how goofy we must have looked with our heads down as we seriously and quietly scoured our bingo sheets for the winning numbers. The funniest part is that while WE were frantically searching our sheets, the veterans in the crowd were impatiently tapping their daubers. Apparently that's bingo-code for "hurry up caller"!

Well, speaking of winning numbers, we did not win. Not only did we not win, we didn't even come close. After a winner is declared, the caller will give you the "crying numbers" which we found out were the next two numbers that would have been called. You know you're doing poorly when even the crying numbers wouldn't have put you even remotely close to winning. BUT...although we didn't know what we were doing and even though we didn't win, we DID have a blast!

So...

Amy's final opinion on Midland's Bingo Scene: Fun with friends and pretty darn cheap ($6.25 for one session, and that's if you don't already own a dauber.)

Amy's advice (or in this case, what to look our for): Find the non-smoking room unless you enjoy sitting in and smelling like an ashtray.