Today’s discussion group was entitled, “What every 35 year-old needs to know.”

The room was crowded with people who wanted to share what they have learned in their lives. None of them were preachy… you could tell that they care… their advice hit me hard and at 43 these are good things to hear.  

They all said their parents rarely gave advice… instead they learned all they needed to know simply by watching. What was important was shown in how their parents lived their lives. There was true regret when they spoke of parents today who have a lot of opinions and talk about the right thing to do… but their kids see that the talk and their life don’t match up.

Then they slammed this thought home… “Why should your kids take your advice if you aren’t taking your advice?”

I love debates and discussions. I love to ponder and craft opinions. But this 43 year-old needs to spend a little more time crafting what I want to say with my life instead of the wonderful words I can put together in order to “enlighten” my children.

And if you think that’s great… wait till you hear what they had to say about marriage, careers and retirement…

The first lesson I learned about playing Bingo was that you don’t arrive at the time on the flyer… that is the time they START.

It was announced to the hundred or so people that they had to wait for me to pay my $1.00 and find a seat.

Based on the only Bingo lore I know, I was expecting people to have 50 cards in front of them and a “dauber”… I was relieved to see that these cards had little transparent windows that slide back and forth. You also only got two cards… even I could handle that.

There are rules and protocol to be followed… deviation is not looked upon with a friendly eye. Once you get a Bingo, you can’t get a second prize, if you win again the prize is given to a person that hasn’t won yet… until everyone gets a prize.

It sounds pleasant on the surface… but I was amazed that some people won 2 or 3 times and I sat needing a B-15 or O-72… slowly getting annoyed. There are two types of people… those who when calling out the numbers from their Bingo say “free space” and those that don’t say it because it’s assumed. I fancied that I would be an “assumed” type player… but I never had the chance… I got a “Mercy Prize.”

There was one consolation… the part they never talk about in polite Bingo circles. Regular Bingo is having numbers in a straight line, but they also play “H”, “T”, and “L” Bingo where you need to form the letter on your card. Bingo’s dirty little secret was whispered to me… “This is the best part… someone always yells Bingo and doesn’t have the letter… it always happens.”

We weren’t disappointed… for each letter game we played at least one person and often two or three would call Bingo only to discover that they didn’t have the letter after all. This gave all of us who were winless, Mercy Prize winners a little glee and a few giggles.

When you’re a Bingo Rookie, that’s pretty much all you can hope for.