BINGO WAS HIS NAME-O

Some friends of mine have opened my eyes to the wonderful world of community bingo.. Now I know what your thinking, but the stereotypical diaper-clad fold are nowehere to be found in this hall. The vast majority seems to be people under the age of 30, and its no wonder. . . for $5 a card, $5, pitchers of beer, and even cheaper food, Thursday nights have never looked better. The bingo hall is located in a semi remote place, where it seems that you almost have to be in the know to find out about it. However, the hall's popularity has been rising. So much so that its volunteers have been stamping the hands of people to make it in on time, and seats aren't allowed to be saved. When I arrived this week, 15 minutes before the game was about to start, I was greeted by a harsh exchange of words from one of the volunteers to a woman trying to get in, "You know what, we can give you your donation back . . ." Meanwhile, a friend of mine was exiting the hall to try and bring me inside. I was hesitant as I anticipated that what I had just witnessed was about to be done to me. But no, my friend Bianca is wayyyy too clever for that. As she came out, she didn't even look at me and as she walked past me she just said "follow me. ." haha it was hilarious. She took me into the bath room and without even blinking an eye stuck her hand with the stamp underneath the sink to try and transfer her stamp onto my hand. It wasn't successful, so we got out a pen and began to duplicate the image (which thankfully wasn't too hard for us seeing as the Houston humidity had distorted the stamp to a black smudge). A woman entered the restroom and laughed and told us to do what we had to do. She had been denied access to the hall and had told us how the volunteer gave her a speech about fire codes. . .unfortunatly for the harsh words of the volunteer, the woman and her husband happen to be fire marshalls for the Houston Fire Department. We laughed and continued on with our plot. As we entered the hall, I flashed my hand to the officer at the door and scuttled in. That's right friends, I snuck into the bingo hall haha. Just so you know, you don't actually have to pay to get in and play bingo, costs are covered when you buy the game card, which I did. So no harm was done and we enjoyed our game Thursday night.

Hilary