Have you ever gone to one of those bingo halls located in some unfamiliar suburban location? A big utilitarian building with fluorescent lighting that makes everyone look ten years older? Where the non-smokers are put into a separate, smaller room because the majority of the bingo players are smokers?
My sister loves bingo and she wins. A lot. She’s been able to take vacations with her bingo winnings. She buys those little pull tabs at the bingo hall and wins with them, too. When she comes to Houston, I generally find one of those bingo halls and go with her. I do not win. But that’s okay. I’m not there for the bingo. I like to watch the people.
For one thing, this is the ONLY place in Houston where people gather quietly. We truly have the noisiest restaurants and stores of any city I’ve ever been in. But the bingo hall is hushed. Players are concentrating on their bingo sheets and the caller’s voice.
I enjoy checking out the good luck totems people bring and set up around their bingo sheets. It reminds me of when I travel. I like to carry favorite stones and crystals with me and set them up in my hotel room or condo. I usually have nag champa incense with me, too, and if I get a chance to buy cut flowers, I’ll add those. I don’t know why I started doing this, but it always makes me feel safer and happier in an unfamiliar place. When I did it on my first visit to New York, it made the hotel housekeepers smile at me and ask me questions. In countries like Bali, my friend Tandy tells me, hoteliers and innkeepers actually do this for their guests–leave little iconic gifts with fresh flowers in their rooms.
So I totally get why bingo players like to arrange their little space with their lucky charms, their dabbers, their ashtray–everything just so. I was sitting at my computer today when I suddenly realized that in my busy-ness, I’ve kind of let things collect on my desk. Though these things have no particular significance to me, I told Tom I feel like a bingo player.
I hope I win.
Stress ball from Tom, Happy Meal doll, champagne cork from New Year’s Eve, bookmark from our niece.
That mouse child still freaks me out a little.
Bingo is fun. I like watching the people too. So serious. I was in the VFW once, and my friend and I almost got thrown out because we were laughing too much. You don’t want to mess with Bingo ladies…they get real mean.
I hope you win too. 😀
Nice collection.
I have my sacred travels totems and also buy flowers for my room as well….great minds think a like.
the happy meal toy is a little bit creepy…and i llike him a lot. 🙂
LOL, you always crack me up.
i also just noticed that you have a bottle of lotion back there.
i have to have lotion within arms reach of me at all times – i’m completely obsessed with it.
creepy doll? check. squeezy thing? check. lotion? check. ok, we’re ready.
Oh, yeah, lotion’s a must.
Hmm…why am I suddenly reminded of “Silence of the Lambs?”
i’m no seamstress
i don’t keep all my lotion in a basket…most of it, but not all.
Do the callers still do those wonderful bingo calls like, “Two fat ladies – 88” and “legs 11 – *wolf whistle*” or have they been outlawed for the sake of political correctness?
I’ve never heard callers say anything but the letter and the number. It seems people take their bingo very seriously.
Back in Ireland I used to go sometimes with my grandma and aunties and the callers were fabulous. They had funny monikers for almost every number but I later heard that some places were doing away with a lot of the slang as “experts’ thought it might offend people (though I don’t think anyone ever complained – just control Nazis on the P.C. warpath!).