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(Almost) All Fun and Games

9/14/2010

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

There was fun in the air at Bingo tonight—and maybe just a hint of aftershave.

Everyone was in a good mood. Dorothy and Royal teamed up to ogle the prize cart and giggle, then they threatened to steal things when I wasn’t looking. Cal Bush called over, “Hello, young lady,” and when I asked whether he meant me, he laughed and said his birthday was coming up—he was about to turn “23.” Wesley had perched a stuffed lamb from the cart on his caller’s table. At first glance it was cute, but on second glance, something was a little off. “That thing’s head is WAY too big for its body,” I told Wesley. He actually guffawed, and every time we looked at it after that, we both did.

My new friend the Bingo survivor came in all spiffed up, in a nice button-down shirt and patriotic suspenders. When he hugged me, I thought I detected a pleasant new scent of some kind. He told me Ray McDade had suggested he go to church tonight. Maybe another night, my new friend had said; “I told him there was someone I wanted to see at Bingo.”

Leo Burton accidentally called a bingo before he had one, but then the next number was just what he’d needed. “I knew I was about to get a damn Bingo,” Leo laughed. To which Wesley replied: “Watch your language.” Leo and I both laughed; certainly we’d heard much worse come from that very chair. But Wesley was serious. It could have turned sour, but Leo let it go. “Whatever,” he said. I smiled at them both.

Drama avoided. Wesley bingoed and won his hysterically giant-headed lamb. Happiness restored. 
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    Author
    My name is Sandy Deneau Dunham. I'm a journalist who’s worked at The Phoenix Gazette, The (Tacoma) News Tribune,  The Seattle Times, Town Hall Seattle and Pacific Lutheran University. I'm now back at The Seattle Times, as associate editor of its gorgeously glossy Pacific NW magazine. I've been a volunteer at the Washington Soldiers Home and Colony in Orting, Washington, since January 2009, and I am still a remedial videographer.   

     

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