Birthday Bingo

Along with our family's birthdays being nearly exactly spread out over the course of the calendar year, another unique & unplannable coincidence that existed in our family is that both Mom & Dad's mothers were born on the same date of the month, just different months. And Mom's mother's birthday happened to fall within a week of Dad's birthday. I never knew either of my grandfathers, they both died before Mom & Dad were married, though I had the great pleasure of knowing both of my grandmothers, who, generationally, could've been a mother to the other one; that's how far apart in age they happened to be (likewise with my grandfathers).

In my opinion gifting women is significantly simpler than gifting men. Maybe it's just the men in my life, though. Mom made it easy in that anything dealing with sewing, crafts, & decorating would work as a "fall back" for her if I couldn't come up with anything else. Dad wasn't like that well, because there weren't a lot of options to get someone who was into gardening & genealogy. Dad didn't fish, sit in front of the television with a beer & watch sports, golf, bowl, & I'm sure that I'm forgetting at least one more stereotype I spent my childhood observing on the front of most every Hallmark card option for Father's Day. (Where I struggled very much with card options! 😞)

He did sit in front of the television each time his hometown football team took to the field, though that's pretty much been his only spectator sport. And he wasn't "the guy" holding a beer; that's never been his beverage of choice.

Getting a gift for Mom's mother wasn't all that difficult either. And it wasn't even because I'd be gifting a woman. Grandma had a hobby. She played bingo.

I'm sure that we didn't all gift her bingo paraphilia each year, although winning options would be these or these. She'd definitely use them & neither lasted 😂. So, even as a routine gift idea, they worked well. Another of Grandma's favorite things to keep around, especially when she'd have time to just sit, would be these. She'd be sitting if she was waiting on someone to pick her up from the bus station, or when she was trying to stay out of our way during a visit, whenever we'd be trying to accomplish something we'd be completely used to doing...She'd know that by her sitting on the side of the couch, under the lamp, that she'd be well off & out of the way. We knew she was having fun figuring out her missing letters.

*****

The image link isn't the bingo bag Grandma used, though it's similar as I recall. Mom sewed the one Grandma used. Mom wasn't into quilting as she is now, so it lacked the true "quilted" aspect, though it was handmade & most definitely with love from daughter to mother. 😍

Grandma had a bingo hall to go to most every night of the week. She'd play quite a spread of cards at once. And when things came up to pick numbers, she'd use her children & grandchildren's birthdays. She'd get so excited to share with us when she'd win something with our birthday digits.

Playing bingo was her social event, though it was also a source of income for her too. She didn't win all the time, & the winnings weren't all that big, though they were something, & that "something" helped her out. Playing was her social event since these were the years since her family had either moved away or passed away. And those others who'd be at the bingo hall too, she'd share about her growing family, (& of their growing up too) & she'd learn of the stories from the regulars around her as well. She'd have our annual school photos handy & she'd be able to show the small group she'd befriended who she was talking about all the time.

And then the night would come to a close & she'd be on her way back to her little ranch house where she'd likely watch sitcoms after the nightly news until a new day began; she'd eventually find her way to her bed where she'd be until she couldn't resist the morning's sunrays any longer.



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