News
Everyone's A Winner At Elks Bingo Weekly game a social event for seniors
By John Burton
MIDDLETOWN - It's about 11 a.m. on a chilly December Friday, as some players continue to stream in at the Middletown Elks Lodge 2179 in the Belford section of the township. Others wait outside having a quick smoke, and still others are getting settled in, maybe having a cup of coffee, a quick bite or chatting with another of the regulars. But at noon, it'll be about the game, and the game is bingo.
The Elks lodge, 251 Church Street, has been holding its weekly bingo games since 1994, said Harry Paule, a member of the lodge who runs the game. For the lodge, while its bar and other activities, "help keep the lights on," it is the bingo game that helps provide the lodge with the funds for its charitable work. "It's not a great money maker," Paule said. "But it helps the community."
The weekly game needs about 75 players to make any money and usually gets about that or up to 80, most weeks, Paule said, noting that as it gets later in the month, attendance tends to fall off, as many of the regulars are older, relying on their monthly pension and Social Security checks for their livelihoods.
It seemed last Friday the group in attendance met Paule's numbers for the day, with a room largely filled.
The game actually starts at noon and runs until 2 p.m., but players start rolling in earlier, taking the time to chat with their friends and get caught up, have a light lunch and get settled in for the game.
"It helps the elderly," Paule pointed out about the collection of players. "It gets them out."
Many, maybe most, of those seated at the long tables appeared to be seniors, and mostly women. But there was a smattering of men and some younger women who were here for the games.
"I'm an old pro at it," said Rosalie Parry, Middletown. Parry said she started playing 46 years ago, when she was just 18, when her mother took her to Bingo for her birthday. "I've been doing it ever since," Parry said proudly.
The veteran player sat at a table in the very back of the room, with a large selection of game cards in front of her, along with her ink dabbers - those large, felt marker-like devices that are used to mark the cards as a caller announces the numbers.
Parry said she had more than $40 worth of the cards ready for the games.
According to Paule, players pay a $1 admission fee and then pay for the cards, $3 for a six-face book, $6 for a 12-face, as well as a dollar for each chance at the 50/50 raffles. The Elks have two 50/50s during the games, he said.
Players could win as much as $200 top prize for the game, Paule said.
To win a player has to get the right numbers on a card, either vertically, diagonally, or in four "L"s on the corners.
Parry said the previous Friday was one of her best days, when she actually won two 50/50s. "I almost fell off my chair," she said of her big score.
"It's an outlet, to get away from the kids," said Maureen Reyes, who lives in the Leonardo section of Middletown. "There's so few places where you can go, spend a little money and have some entertainment."
Ida Amecangelo, Red Bank, and her longtime friend Addie Calandriello, Middletown, asked that their ages not be printed, but Ida acknowledged she has been playing since 1942. "A long time," Calandriello noted with a nod.
They used to travel quite a bit going to the area games, but, "getting old, you can't travel so much," Amecangelo conceded.
"Tell me," Calandriello asked, "where can a senior citizen go and talk to another senior citizen and have some fun?"
Hazlet resident Carmine Coppola said after he retired he got talked into coming by a neighbor a few years ago. "And I got stuck on it, as they say," he said. Winning a couple of bucks, "that ain't really bad," and besides, he added, the room is full of women. "That's pretty good," he said.
According to the Web site About.com, bingo can be traced back to 1530 Italy to a lottery-style game, and versions of it were seen in 18th Century France; and in 19th Century Germany a similar game was used mostly to help children learn math.
But the modern incarnation of the game was first played in the U.S. at carnivals in the 1920s. That game was called "beano" as beans were used on the cards to mark the called numbers. A New York toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, renamed it when he heard someone yell out "bingo!" instead of "beano!" when winning the game.
A Catholic priest then approached Lowe about using the game as a fundraising tool for the parish.
According to the brief history of the game posted on About.com, today more than $90 million is spent on bingo games weekly throughout North America.
Blossom Schlindwein, Lincroft, sits with all her different colored ink dabbers in front of her and her cards. "I like contrast," with the all the varied colors for the cards, she explained.
At the senior facility where she lives, Schindwein said the game still uses the old-style chips for the cards but, "The chips are hard to find."
"I like colors that match," offered Barbara DeSiato, Port Monmouth. "And guess what? It doesn't help me to win one bit."
This is just one of the games in the area, and some of the players said they make the rounds, going to the games at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) lodge here in the township, St. Catherine's and St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church's in Middletown and Keansburg, respectively, among others.
"I play all over," Parry said.
"You have camaraderie with the people," explained Reyes. "I hope it never ends."
