Let's play bingo, bingo, bingo!

Mom's favorite day of the week is Friday. Not like it's everyone's favorite day because it's the end of the work week. Mom loves Fridays because it's BINGO night. This is a big event! ;-) It's the apex of her social calendar. It's where all her pals get together for the 3 G's - gambling, gossip, and giggling.

Mom's Friday starts out with a trip to the hairdresser. Her hair is freshly washed, set, combed out and "shellacked" into place. It's got to stay nice for the entire week! Once she has finished, she'll walk the 2 blocks to GILMART... a local Polish store and deli. She might pick up some groceries, but she mainly goes there to play her IL lottery numbers and scratch tickets. My Mother is one of the luckiest people alive. She wins all the time! No wonder she keeps playing. ;-) However, this is just her warm-up routine.

Once she's home, she'll change into a nice outfit for bingo. She volunteers at our church bingo by selling pull tabs before bingo starts. If you have never attended a church bingo, please go and see for yourself. Bingo is BIG BUSINESS. There are 5 or 6 different kinds of pull tabs for sale before and during the bingo games. Then there is the actual bingo. There are side pots like "quarters" and other games the ladies (mostly ladies, but there are some men) play with each other. These senior citizens spend big money gambling - anywhere from $50 to $500 per Friday night. Many regularly spend $100-$200 per week. However, they can win $50, $100, $250, $500 at the drop of a hat... and if they win the big weekly pots they can win thousands. The big weekly pot was won last night (it usually takes several months for someone to win it) and that lucky winner got almost $7k. Yes, that's right... 7 thousand dollars. Last year, one of the pots grew and grew. Bingo attendance skyrocketed. When the jackpot was finally won, the lucky winner got $21,000. Amazing, isn't it? My lucky Mother came home with about $200.

I've let you in on the gambling; next on the list is GOSSIP. If you want to know what's going on in the community, ask an old lady. They know everything and everyone! I think they don't talk to each other all week just so they can save up the gossip for Friday night. The topics can range from health (such as illnesses, falls, broken bones, paramedic visits, and death) to church business (how the new pastor is doing, which groups he pays the most attention to, etc.) or family stuff (how the son who just lost his job is doing, what the grandchildren are up to). And did I mention Boyfriends? Yes, Boyfriends with a capital B. Mom doesn't have a Boyfriend any longer (he died a couple of years ago), but many of her lady friends do and they all talk about where they went to eat during the week. I love this about Mom and her friends. They are so cute!

Finally, there is GIGGLING. It goes hand and hand with the gossip. They laugh about everything. Mom comes home in such a good mood... with tons of stories to relate about what happened during the night and what her friends are doing. It's wonderful to see her laugh, socialize and have fun with her friends.

Mom's love of Fridays has taught me a valuable lesson: we all want to enjoy life and have fun, we all need friends, we all need people who understand us, we all need love. This transcends age, race, time, space, everything. And when my patience wears thin, I try to remember Friday nights.