Amy Lu's View

On Read Across America Day, we should celebrate everywhere, in all communities, in all types of venues. 

So I celebrated by reading in a Bingo Parlor. 

Yes, artistic license alert–I wasn’t actually in a bingo parlor–just a local bar/restaurant that has Bingo every Saturday afternoon. But this is some serious bingo action, almost THREE HOURS of bingo, so I feel it has a “parlor” ambiance. 

And okay, reading bingo cards might not be considered robust reading, but as a librarian, I get to say reading is reading and should be celebrated and upheld in all its forms. There were letters involved in today’s endeavor, so I call it reading. 

And I won $49! I was triumphant in the next-to-the-last round, when I had just about given up all hope of winning. My victory was especially sweet because I won with the card I got free because it was my birthday month. 

The goal of the round I won was to get a “six-pack” pattern. Since I’m a bingo novice, and because I was talking more than I was paying attention to my cards, I almost missed it when I got bingo. Luckily the friend sitting next to me was able to verify that I did indeed have bingo. (I did not want to be “The Lady Who Cried Bingo,” the less popular companion to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”).

Winning at bingo on my Birthday Eve feels like an auspicious way to close out being 53 and ring in 54. 

Is this next year going to be a good one? BINGO!