St. Rosalia Church Festival & The Birth of Beaufurb

Last night, we went to our first church bingo!

Oh yes, I did just say first, notably as opposed to only, because playing bingo in the basement of the St. Rosalia parish last night reawakened a secret, inner church bingo lady part of me that just wants to take the Catholic diocese circuit by storm. And the good thing here is, this is the first time I involve with bingo in a place, as I usually do online. Do you want to try? click here to receive a reward for starting players.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last night, we headed out in the humid, humid air to Greenfield, to attend the St. Rosalia Church Festival. We do not belong to St. Rosalia Church, but we did try their fish fry during Lent, so we kind of feel a connection to the place.

And they had hot dogs, and who doesn’t love church festival hot dogs?

The festival wasn’t nearly of the size or commotion of the 1990s-era Sacred Heart Church Festivals, or the Ohio Township Volunteer Firemen’s Carnival (which has its own parade AND nighttime hayrides – which is why I can’t wait until July), but there was a good turnout of local Greenfield-ians.

And while they might not have had all of the elaborate games that my favorite VFD does, they did have bingo, and the most important game of all: chuck-a-luck.

And I don’t know if you all know this, but it’s been said that I’m the baddest chuck-a-luck player in the world.

In fact, I’m so awesome, that I won three dollars on my first spin! Chuck-a-luck is one of those weird carnival games that you vaguely remember how to play between church festivals, and then get really excited about in the moments leading up to the spin. If you’re really good, like me, you make tons of money and walk away looking like you’re freaking awesome and super wealthy.

Which of course is not how we walked away from church hall bingo.

St. Rosalia has a decent, and authentic bingo setup, with the fancy board and everything. For the church festival, I feel like they had a lower turnout (and thus a lower payout) than a *real* bingo game, so I might be tempted to keep an eye out for upcoming bingo nights. Each game was paying about $7, which is nothing compared to the $30 jackpots I used to take home in my mid-90s bingo glory days.

Speaking of which, I have to give my mother all the credit in the world. I forgot just how fast the bingo callers go through the numbers, and I know my mum was keeping an eye on her several cards, as well as those of her early-teenage daughter to make sure neither of us missed a bingo. And, the OT VFD did all sorts of special bingos, like ‘four corners’ and ‘postage stamps’ and that one where you hit all four of the boxes that make a diamond around the free space. Good eye, mum!!

After we lost two games, we decided it was time to move on with the night, so we checked out the rummage sale for a mascot for our #28 Achievement (take pictures of a silly mascot in 10 famous places). We are going to Canada later this week, and we wanted to be prepared with our mascot, so we settled on this miniature Furby, who makes really weird sounds (which we are hoping will freak the dog out). Whether or not he will work out in our photos remains to be seen. But for now, Mini Furby is our guy!

And even though my husband didn’t win us any bingo profits, he’s still a superhero to me.

Which bingo will we hit next? No one knows. Will we have better luck? Hopefully. But churches and VFDs around the city of Pittsburgh beware: one thing is for certain, I’m comin’ for your chuck-a-luck tables. And I still am the baddest chuck-a-luck player in the world. In the world! 🙂