Bingo Hour

I re-drew this comic I had done over a year ago and finessed it a bit to submit to the Manitoban for next week.
I was totally smiling the whole time.
Man, I had forgotten the feeling of being "the caller" during the Bingo hour twice a week!!

You might know this already but people get really crazy during a game of bingo. There is a whole culture of superstitious behaviour: tiny trolls, certain coloured bingo boards, lucky tiddly-wink styled chips of a certain colour. I love the whole scene, the ceremony of it all.
There was this one lady, Mary, who had a rhyme for EVERY number I called. For example, B8: Set them straight, B5: I feel alive! I got so distracted listening to all her amazing rhymes one game that I got complaints for calling too slow. That is the other thing: people get temperamental about the pace of the game. They like a few quick "one line any way" games to warm up and then they want to get down to business with the classic "X" or "Black-Out"...But oh my goodness, if you call TOO FAST you get a whole lot of complaining too.

It takes a lot of practice to call a game of Bingo in a nursing home: There are a lot of things to be aware of outside of the regular game...make sure you seat people very strategically, learn how to patiently repeat the same stuff many times in a non-irritated voice and keep that bucket of chocolate eggs visible: the folks like to keep an eye on the prize!

Also, you will have to get up and redirect Mildred (very large lady in her wheelchair) several times during the hour because she comes in yelling it's NOT her birthday and all hell breaks loose.