January 1, 2003
Serious players spell fun B-I-N-G-O
Sights and sounds of bingo night include good luck charms and rituals
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
If nothing else, bingo is an evening of sounds.
As 101 people descended on the UAW Retirees Hall Monday evening for the weekly game of chance, the distinctive noises began: the hum of players selecting just the right cards from a bin of hundreds; the greetings and laughter as they pay for them and find their seats. The clacks and thumps as players carefully arrange their favorite good luck charms around their cards.
Next come the multiple thwocks of the paper grocery bags used for garbage being unfolded at each place and then the clicks of cigarette lighters as smokers light up to wait for the first ball.
As the caller took his place on a stage at the front of the hall, a hush descends. Players grab their brightly-colored ink daubers and wait, arms poised above their paper cards. The numbered Ping-Pong balls rattle in their case as, one by one, the caller draws out a number and places it before a closed circuit camera.
"I-30_ N-34_ B-7_ O-68," announces Leonard Pierce, a caller for the evening.
Finally, a triumphant "BINGO!" rings out, sometimes two or three at a time, drawing checkers to verify the winners. The checkers bellow out numbers to the caller for confirmation and the money guy scrambles to hand over a rustling pile of bills - $10, $25 or more to the winner or winners.
During 'hard card' or regular bingo games, players use colored markers on the cardboard cards they chose at the night's beginning. Each of these games is followed by the distinctive clink, clink, clink as a hundred players wield magnetic wands to remove the markers from their cards.
The sounds of bingo are second to the rituals of the players - ceremonies as varied and intense as each participant. Certain clothes, the same seat and a lucky mix of numbers, precisely selected at the night's beginning, all could mean a winning evening.
"I always try to get different numbers in the B corners and the same with 61-75 for the O corners," said Virginia Quante of Buckley, a Monday night regular and a 25-year-plus bingo veteran.
Then comes the array of bingo necessities: charms or stuffed animals, pictures of children or grandchildren, snacks and drinks carefully arranged around each player's field of cards. A glue stick or roll of tape is kept handy to quickly affix the paperback cards to a plastic sheet. Every player uses this sheet during the disposable card games to protect the regular hard cards from the ink.
The good luck charms of sisters Georgann Kosiara of Bellaire and Dorrie Morrison of Rapid City are always laid out just so, the dozens of trinkets ready to draw Lady Luck's attention.
"We have my mother's Petoskey stones, coins my son brought back from Australia, Buddha statues from Mexico, things from the flea market," said Kosiara, who has been playing bingo since 1971.
The two sisters always purchase 18 cards, matching ones, and play the same specials.
"We split the winnings," Morrison said.
The lure of lucre is part of the draw for players, though the underlying camaraderie is important.
"Bingo is both a social time and the chance to actually win something, although I actually win very little," said Chris Rider of Traverse City, a faithful player for the past 17 years.
"You get to know everyone's face but you don't know their names, but you talk to them anyway. I work at Sam's Club and I see players all the time and we always smile and say 'Hi' when we see each other around town."
Tracking dozens of cards at one time is old hat to veteran players; one player is so blas‚ about watching her dozen cards, she reads a novel between calls.
"People start out with just one or two cards," said Dolores Morrish, a volunteer who documents all the cards used and money taken in and paid out for state regulators. "Then they work up to more cards. We have one gentleman who would play 42 cards and three door cards."
The UAW Retirees Hall has sponsored Monday night bingo for the past nine years, becoming a fixture in the region. They pack the house in the summertime and rarely drop below 40-50 people during the winter. The proceeds from the games fund a variety of retiree projects.
"What I like about it is that some of the ladies have been coming since we opened in 1993," Morrish said. "It's almost like a family and if you don't see someone for a few weeks, you begin to wonder if they are OK, if they live alone."