For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 09, 2016

that intense

Even back in the ‘80s, I’d have been out of there at the first sniff of smoke. I’ll walk out of my own funeral if someone lights up.

4 cards? I am just able to keep up with 1. Our caller is from New York and she calls the numbers at lightning speed.

At one time, my husband & I worked at a bingo parlor. My husband walked around selling scratch tickets; I worked in the cash office. This is funny because he is the introvert & I’m the “people person”, but we switched once & both did horribly in the other’s job. My husband told me tales of how seriously these people took their game AND their scratch tickets!

You betchum, Red Ryder, they take it seriously! Serious as a heartbeat.

If one already didn’t know, it’d be easy to tell that this was a reprint — look at the canteen prices.

You learn really fast here in Portland to NOT get in their way when it’s bingo day!

smoking and the right to kill yourself and others. if that isn’t freedom, what is?

I was a student night manager years ago in college, in the Student Center/Convo Center, and we had the obligatory Bingo every Monday night. Sault Ste. Marie isn’t a very large town, but there were always at least 50 players there, mostly older ladies and gents.

Part of my job and the students I had working for me was to stand in for anyone who had to make a privy run, and I developed a HUGE respect for dedicated Bingo players – some of those people were running 25 or 30 cards and had no trouble keeping up with the caller.

But heaven help the poor student stand-in who fell behind and didn’t keep the cards exactly up to date. It was a bloody combat zone!! You can’t imagine how hostile a little old lady can get when you make her miss a Bingo!

When I visit my friend in OK I go to bingo with her. I never win, but I seem to bring her luck! She usually wins when I am with her…once she won a hundred dollars. She always wants me to go with her and she always pays for my cards!

Isn’t that a pencil in her mouth??

Slot machines and casino’s have taken the place of bingo mostly. Very addictive,and quick to take your money.By the way,just so you know,we are just as militant in regards to smoking laws in Canada as the U.S.,maybe more so.Cigs are out of view,behind a curtain in all stores,and packs of smokes have depressing pictures of people showing rotted teeth and gums,and various cancers.If that isn’t enough to discourage you,the price for a single pack of smokes is more than 15$ in convenience stores!

An 84 year old friend of mine plays Bingo at the Eastside Cannery Casino here in Vegas. She is the luckiest person I have ever met. Just in the few years I have known her well, she has won thousands of dollars.

Where my wife plays bingo, the minimum buy in is a pack of twenty-eight cards, plus she gets a computer that tracks a whole lot more games than that. She still can’t win.

A man I knew had a job I would not want for my worst enemy: Bingo referee. Originally I thought that was no big deal, but bingo calling “G 56”, is a surprisingly demanding job, as he had not taken a vacation in four years. He would also occasionally deal with threats from sore losers. “Do not point that cane at me, blue hair!” :P

An organization I was involved with ran Bingo. We did 3 games on Saturday night (best slot of the week BTW). The players take it very seriously, and most really can’t afford to. We made over $200,000 a year in revenue from bingo. That made it pretty cheap for our kids and we just had to volunteer once a month, which was actually kinda fun, I was even trained as a caller, which is also a very serious job

I used to play 36 cards at a time. No problem Real easy! I’d win too! :)

all the players do take the game serioulsy, same as the ones who watch fooball or anything else.

Bingo is not a matter of life or death……It’s WAY more important than that!

Remember not to play B-17 Olivia Newton John.