BINGO!!! Errr nope...Sorry!

Tuesday afternoon M3's Mom (aka Wela) invited me to go play BINGO with she and some friends. What a hoot!! The ladies in her group are part of a local 'Red Hat Society' so of course they made sure I was dressed the part too! :o) The colour for 'younger' gals is pink so I wore a pink sweater and they added the accessories of a hat, scarf and pin!

After dining at the fine establishment McD*nald's with the ladies, M3 and the little girls, Wela and I drove over to the local Senior's Center where the BINGO is held each Tuesday afternoon. The Red Hat Ladies had warned me that these people take their BINGO very seriously and the one thing not to do was ever call a 'fake Bingo.' Oh yes....you can tell where this one is going! :o)

First off, let me tell you that BINGO is far more complicated than I remember! Fancy patterns, a variety of types of cards and so much more. Before we began any of the games we were supposed to take one particular card and mark all the even numbers as it was an even day of the month. That would have been good...except I started to mark the wrong coloured card. Oops! Note to self: Ignore the red squares. Later in the afternoon I started playing a game on that same card only to find out they had switched to a special card and once again the wrong numbers were marked. Note to self: Ignore red and purple squares. (Just realized how funny it is that the two wrong colours I have are red and purple which are the Red Hat Ladies signature colours!!)

Finally it was time to play '6 around the corner' on my mis-marked card. A BINGO for this one was 6 squares in a row around the edge. We played for a while when a gentleman at the table next to us yelled 'BINGO!' In all my excitement I looked down and before I could help myself my arm flew up in the air and I yelled BINGO too! Uh oh....those red squares don't count and I'd just called a Fake Bingo! Oh no!! The guy with the flag shuffled over to check my card but for the life of me I couldn't convince him that it wasn't a true BINGO and that he didn't need to check my card. Eventually he left and we all laughed! And yes, my face was as red as the ladies' hats and they took many opportunities to tease me!! In all the times this group had gone to this BINGO, not once had anyone called a Fake BINGO. Leave it to the foreigner!!

In the end I didn't end up winning anything but did learn a number of good lessons:
1. Never let your cell phone ring while playing with the seniors or there will be an erruption of 'Shhhhh, Turn that off!' (Thankfully this didn't happen to me....this time)
2. The call of I-2-2 will cause some people to blow a train whistle. Guess 2-2 sounds like toot-toot.
3. Midway through the afternoon there is a break and set up outside is a table of free, day-old bread and baked goods donated by a local grocery store. Don't get in the way of these people or they're liable to take you out with their cane or walker as they charge for the tables!
4. When taking a dish of popcorn for snack, don't take one for your friend too or no less than 3 lil ole gals will tell you off for carrying two at once as you might spill them!
5. Red Hat Ladies know how to have FUN!! Our table laughed our way through the afternoon and even though we didn't ever have a BINGO (well, at least a legal BINGO) we spent the afternoon laughing together and teasing one another.

When the games were all over we joined the rest of our group outside who had been sitting at a table across the room. They asked how much I had won and when we told them it was a Fake BINGO they all gasped out loud! A fake BINGO???? Ooooooo!!! :o)

Final lesson learned: Given the opportunity, I'll happily join the Red Hat Ladies at a future BINGO afternoon....if they'll have me!