BOO-I-N-G-O

The first time I ever went to a real bingo was not long after I turned 18.  I loved playing bingo in elementary school and my grandparents would host a bingo game for the kids during our family summer vacations.  So my grandma was really excited to take us to a real bingo (with actual money and prizes involved) when I was 18 and could legally gamble.  I was really excited myself because bingo is fun and now I could get real prizes out of it.

When I went though, it was a little more intimidating than I expected.  These old people take their bingo very seriously.  It was at a local church and the place was packed.  Everyone was looking at me because I was definitely the youngest person there. My mom and grandma even prepped me by saying if I were to win people would be heckling the callers to check my ID to make sure I could actually be playing.  My grandma came prepared with the daubers and tape to tape down the boards so they don’t move.  I didn’t win anything that day, but it was a strange experience because I don’t think they get too many 18 year olds excited for bingo.  

I still love bingo, but I think it makes more sense to find a crowd more in my age range, except college kids don’t seem to be a huge target audience for bingo.  While I was searching for Halloween events going on around my area, I found a Halloween themed “Boozy Brunch Bingo” at the Nip n’ Tuck bar in Long Branch.  I put it in my calendar and knew I had to go.  Not only was it bingo, but it was HALLOWEEN bingo!! Two of my favorite things!  However, I couldn’t help but get flashbacks to my first bingo event.  Especially because it’s at a bar and I only just turned 21 this past summer, and people can’t believe it because I still look like I’m 16.   So either way I still look like the youngest person in the crowd.

I spent the few weeks after finding the event mentally preparing for it. I was fully convinced it was going to be a crowd full of old people again like the first bingo I went to. The fact that it was a bingo game and early in the day (brunch time) made me believe it even more. I also wasn’t sure if I needed to prep with daubers and tape like my grandma did when she went. There was very little information given about the event online and I couldn't find anything on social media about it, only the one website I found that was selling the tickets had any information on it. The only thing it said was the place, time, and to dress up. Also, anyone dressed as a firefighter got an extra board because it’s fire safety month. I was stressing out about buying a ticket at all because I wanted to make sure it was a legit event. The fact that it wasn’t on the website or social media of the bar made me worried.  It wasn’t until the day before the event was supposed to happen that they finally posted about it on Instagram, so I actually bought my ticket and calmed down a bit. 

The stress came right back a few hours later because I told my roommates about it and they were going to buy their tickets too.  Well the post on Instagram with the link to buy tickets was already taken down and the website where you buy them from said “sales ended”.  My only reaction was “oh no”. What was I going to do now?  I already had my ticket and I didn’t want to go alone.  I also wasn’t sure if tickets would be sold at the door and I (still) couldn't find any information that said if they were selling them or not. After texting my mom who would know more about this than me, she said that usually they stop selling tickets online before to get an idea for how many people were going, but you can still buy them at the door.  So I still wasn’t totally confident, but we were gonna wing it and hope they let them get in. 

The next day we got up a little early so we could get coffee and get ready before we had to be there.  I didn’t really have anything that could work as a costume, but I do have a ton of Halloween accessories so I put together a Halloween-y outfit and went with that.  I was worried that I would be the only one not in costume, but also didn’t want to be overdressed in a costume at 11 in the morning so I just hoped for the best.  My roommate, Rachel, had some cow accessories that she wore and my other roommates, Jess and Mia, didn’t wear a costume either.  

The website said to get there at least 10 minutes before bingo started so we made sure to get there a little early so we could figure out the ticket situation.  When we got there, a woman dressed up as what looked like a zombie was checking people in and giving them a table.  We asked her if we could buy tickets here and she said that reservations/buying in advance are preferred, but they could still buy them now!  I think it helped that I already had a ticket so they were expecting at least one of us and had a table we could use.  Once we sat down we ordered some water (because even though it was a “boozy” bingo, I was too worn out from homecoming the day before to drink anything else) and we pretty much just waited for the games to start.  Eventually more people started to show up and they told everyone to grab a board from the bucket at the front.  They were reusable boards so there was no need for daubers or tape.  I also noticed the crowd was much younger than I expected.  We were still probably the youngest ones there, with another pair of Monmouth students who were there, but not as many senior citizens as I was expecting.  I guess there still is a younger market for bingo!

Being a small local bar, I also noticed that everyone seemed to know each other.  The workers were pointing out regulars and everyone was greeting each other.  The announcer even asked us if this was our first time there, if it wasn’t obvious enough.  The announcer started by telling us there were 3 rules. 1. If you have bingo you need to scream it because it was loud in there and if she didn’t hear you she would keep going.  As a relatively quiet person, this worried me a bit.  2. Don’t clear your board until she says so in case the winner doesn’t actually have bingo.  And 3. We’re all here to have a good time.  The first game was regular bingo. The prize was some scratch off lottery tickets.  I love doing scratch offs so I wouldn’t mind this prize, but I also figured there were better prizes to come. I mean it really wouldn’t matter because you can win multiple bingos anyway, but I didn’t want to press my luck too early. I didn’t need to worry about that because the game ended pretty quickly and I was nowhere close to a bingo. The second game was 4 corners and the prize was a choice of signed football jerseys from either the Panthers, Bengals, or one other team that I forgot.  I actually hate football with a passion so I was mentally checked out for this game.  I didn’t end up winning, but clearly I wasn’t too upset about it. 

The games kept changing between regular bingo variations: diagonal, full X, T, middle row, a cross, and even some new modes I had never played before.  For example, we played a round of normal bingo, except the only difference was that the free space didn’t apply.  I thought this was a fun way to play and I especially liked it because I ended up being one space away from bingo!  The prize for that one was some bottles of alcohol in a cute little Halloween basket.  It was one of the better prizes so I was upset that I came so close but didn’t win.  Other prizes included a camping chair, a cantina, a Nip n’ Tuck shirt, a pitcher of beer for your next visit, a beer can holder, a beach umbrella, and some other repeat prizes.  The ones I wanted the most were the Nip n’ Tuck shirt and the beach umbrella.  I wasn’t close to winning either of those but I was close to winning the beer can holder and a pitcher of beer because I was one away on each of those games too, which were just regular bingo.  

Somewhere in the middle of the games we ordered some food.  It was brunch bingo so I had to get something!  But also it went for a long time and I didn’t eat before going so that helped too.  I got a classic pork roll, egg, and cheese because you can’t go wrong with that!  It even came with tater tots on the side.  Rachel got a BLT.  The food took a while because there were a lot of people and, from what I saw, only one cook, but it was fine because we were preoccupied with bingo anyway.  When it did come out, it was really good, but I was having a hard time trying to eat and play bingo at the same time. 

Since it was Halloween themed, they would have breaks to give away prizes for the costume contest. Some of the categories were most creative, best homemade costume, and best couple. They would have the people participating walk around the bar to show off their costumes.  Then, some of the votes would be determined by applause.  There were more people not dressed up than I was expecting.  I wasn’t in a costume, but if I had one ready I totally would be. How many opportunities as adults do you get to dress up?!

The games continued for a couple hours and eventually the breaks in between and costume contests started getting longer and longer.  It was taking longer than the 4 of us expected, so we decided to head out before the last couple of games.  Unfortunately, none of us ended up winning anything, but I was just happy to be able to go to another bingo!  Especially since this one is local, Halloween themed, and for relatively younger people.  The bar was even advertising their kids Halloween event for October 30th, which I thought was really cute that they have events for kids as well.  They also have Thanksgiving and Christmas bingos coming up later in the year so I’ll have to go back and check those out too.

I’ll have to call my grandma to see if she wants to come.