Bingo people!

In her post this morning, Meredith Gould jokingly refers to the Jewish roots of Bingo as she sheds light on a reader's question about Jewish ritual and tradition. 

And it reminded me, cradle Catholic that I am, about Bingo People!

When I was a kid, we lived on a hill overlooking a Catholic parochial school. Twice a week - may I say religiously - people going to Bingo parked across the street from our house and in front of it, at times even blocking our driveway in their eagerness to go play Bingo.  Sometimes on their way they dropped candy wrappers and soda bottles. Other times they had to park further away and would just sit and rest on our front steps.

"Who are those people?" my younger brother asked when he was a toddler one night, looking out our window at our yard, the grass trampled, a few wrappers on our otherwise green lawn and two complete strangers who were sitting in our lawn chairs.

"Bingo people!" we said and so the name stuck.  

"Are they all moving in?" he asked,  his eyes growing wide as he watched people stream by like lemmings on their way to the school hall.

As we grew older, we learned that if we went out on Bingo evenings,  some Bingo People were so enthusiastic they might even park in our driveway, sometimes leaving us a five dollar bill under their windshield wipers with a note saying "Sorry, late to Bingo, hope you don't mind." 

Ah, Bingo People. 

But, as my grandmother used to say as she reached down to pick up candy wrappers, "It's all for the good of the Church!"

[visual description: A photo of a large hall with tables of people playing Bingo.]