Finding the true essence of the game called Bingo

CFWE Radio’s Bingo Manager Anna Giles has an elegant,  needle-point sign hanging on her office door that reads “Happiness is yelling “Bingo”!

Is this true? I wondered, keeping the question in mind as I set off with her this past July on a junket across northern Alberta to touch base with bingo players and card sellers. On this trip, Anna focused on the Peace River and High Level areas, and I was along for the ride as a writer for Alberta Sweetgrass and radio reporter for CFWE – both subsidiaries of the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta.

With ice-filled coolers in the back seat – the forecast for the week of July 9 predicted sizzling temperatures – Anna and I set out for the wild north. First stop was Grimshaw, and an evening meeting with the incomparable Eileen Knott, who lives in Bownvale. With no bingo-card seller near her town, she makes an astonishing 200 km round trip to Cadotte Lake to buy them.

Eileen invited us to her home the next day, and while she made lunch, husband Mel introduced us to his horse herd, which included an extraordinary Tarpan-breed pony, grey in colour with a bristled black mane. Over lunch we learned Eileen’s wisdom and guidance as a Cree Elder is well-appreciated – as evidenced by the many organizations she’s involved with and the countless meetings she attends.

Not wanting to leave the peacefulness of their farm, but having to push on, we piled into our vehicle only to have it stall. Mel diagnosed a fuel-line malfunction and we ended up riding back to Grimshaw in a tow-truck for an unplanned layover in Grimshaw while it was repaired.

Day Four of the trip dawned clear and hot as we drove further north to meet with Chris of the North Hill Boutique in Manning. This amazing, community-minded lady has transformed her former-flower shop into a store from which she sells Herbalife health products and a studio that offers deep massage.

“I don’t sell hundreds of bingo cards, but I make them available to people who want to play,” she told us. In the cool interior of her office, we shared tea while she told us about some of the people who regularly bought cards from her, especially Darcy, who lived north of town on an isolated gravel road.

“He would just love to meet you, Anna,” Chris said, and so we made a stop to touch base with Darcy, who beamed over the idea the bingo manager would make a special trip to meet him, not to mention the backpack of CFWE Bingo gifts she left with him.

Come evening, we dined with Priscilla, who manages the Bushe Store just outside of High Level – a high-traffic spot for bingo card buyers. She updated us on the boom the town and area is experiencing – as well as the wildfire threatening from the north – and, quite unexpectedly, informed us she’d gone ahead and paid for our dinner!

The next day, we met her efficient, friendly Bushe Store staff, and observed that her thoughtfulness radiated to them, as they made us feel welcome. While I put on my reporter’s hat to zip next door to the band office to learn how Dene Tha’ First Nation members were coping with a wildfire-evacuation order, Anna set up a bingo information table at the store and chatted with players who stopped by to meet her.

By late afternoon we were heading southward again, the fire preventing a planned trip into the Fox Lake area further east. After a quick sleep in Grimshaw, we headed east toward Cadotte Lake to meet Woodland Cree First Nation members, and drop in on Sue and Harry at the Simon Lake Gas Bar. In the blinding heat, their store was a cool oasis, with Harry offering us cold drinks from his refrigerator.

On this final day of our trip, we couldn’t forgo stopping at K.A.N. General Store in Red Earth Creek. Located in yet another area enjoying economic expansion, the store was humming with activity. While Anna met with her seller Derek, I repaired to the vehicle to pack up my camera equipment, thinking the trip was essentially over. Not so. Looking out the windshield, I saw Anna being hugged by an exuberant woman in a fluorescent road crew vest. Turns out Donna, originally from Manitoba, had recently played CFWE Bingo in Red Earth Creek, and won! She was so excited to see the CFWE Bingo vehicle parked at the store, that she pulled over to meet whoever was driving it and report that she was now a regular player. I put my camera to use one more time, clicking off a few frames of Donna with Anna – Donna’s smile as bright as the overhead sun and a fond memory to take back with me to Edmonton.

So, is happiness, indeed, yelling “Bingo?” \ After the week long, whirlwind trip to Bingo-land, my observations conclude that this may, indeed, be true, but everlasting bliss is the feeling you come away with after meeting the people who love to play, and support, the game.