The Bingo Boys of St. Peter's are having a reunion. This is a group
of guys who worked at St. Pete's Bingo games back in 1950's. We were
teenagers then and it was a great way to make some extra money and
learn to charm older ladies. Most of The Bingo Boys
have passed on. I think there are only three left. I'm not going to
the reunion.
St. Pete's is in Washington, D.C. They had bingo games on Monday
nights and, at first, they charged one dollar a card. Then they got
raided by the Internal Revenue Service. It
was against the law to make people pay for bingo gambling. But then
they continued to have bingo games. Instead of collecting at the
door, people entered and found their table.
Then they had a cadre of handsome young teenagers that would go around
to the people
as they sat at the tables. We would ask how many cards they wanted
and hand them out.
Then we would shake a basket at them to get their "donations".
I was flabbergasted at how often they tried to shortchange me. They
would take l0 cards
but only put in a couple of one dollar bills. I was told to watch
carefully and if they didn't
put in the proper amount of one dollar per card, I was to keep shaking
the basket at them
although I couldn't actually ask for more.
We made our money by being charming...running to get sodas or hot dogs
for our table
guests. If they won, they often gave you a tip. If they won big, you
could make some real money. Gratuities were our income. Or so I
thought.
Two years ago I was with some of The Bingo Boys and we were talking
about the good old days. One guy said, "I would never have been able
to get by financially without stealing that money at bingo every
week."
"Stealing?" I asked. I was shocked. I never stole a penny. But all
the others admitted that they stole regularly.
I said, "You stole from your church?" They claimed it wasn't really
the church...it was bingo money.
I was the only Bingo Boy that wasn't Catholic. I was a Methodist who
ran around with Catholics. But I was the only one that wasn't
stealing.
I envied my Catholic friends because when we went out on Saturday
nights, they would run into the church and go to confession. I always
wanted to know what they confessed
but they were vague about it. Whatever they confessed, we went out
and did the same things they had done the week before. And they could
confess again.
When you are a protestant, you talk directly to the Lord. I could ask
for forgiveness but
you never got an answer back so you had mounting guilt. I wanted a
voice to come back
and say: "You're off the hook, kid.". But it never did. I didn't
have a lot to confess anyway
because I certainly didn't steal at bingo or even know that the other
boys were doing it.
I have a feeling that a lot of them are still in Purgatory, burning
like a 3-hour log. That's another thing about the Catholics that I
liked...the idea of Purgatory. A place to go for a while short of
Hell. I think I read that they don't believe in Purgatory any longer.
That's a shame. It was an attractive part of their religion. Almost
as good as confessions.
