N-37 would fail me several times Friday evening as I hoped to achieve riches at the periodic St. Anthony of Padua church Bingo. Mastery of the game is not a requirement for sainthood but it does embellish the Catholic cultural experience with more gamesmanships than simply dropping money in a basket during mass.
Held on this occasion for the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, the cause was to raise funds for the church’s Christmas decorations. There might have been a truck load of poinsettias and pine trees depending on the successful outcome of the night.
For many people, if you ask them about playing Bingo, you might get the predictable Monopoly response, “I haven’t played that in 20 years” as though the mind has an internal calendar that keeps track of such things. Fortunately, Bingo is not the sort of a game that a person gets rusty at with the passage of time. Granted, for some people their hearing may not be what it was two decades earlier, so there might be some question whether the number combination called was a B or G. Fortunately, modern science has given the world the electronic Bingo board which illuminates each letter after it has been called so there can be no confusion.
During the games that evening I can verify that N-37 was seldom called, especially when I needed it the most. It was not an aggressive number at all. (Bear with me on this: If that number was a medical diagnosis, it would be B-9.)
St. Anthony of Padua Church, located near the end of Canal Street not far from the cemeteries, is an esteemed old building that was dedicated in 1923. It has a distinguished mission style architecture.
I was baptized at St. Anthony probably along with a platoon of war babies. I am told that my parents, who lived on nearby Banks Street, spent their first hurricane with a child as part of the crowd seeking refuge in the church. Rather than being dressed in biblical swaddling clothes I was wrapped in my father’s jacket.
For most of the church’s existence it has been run by the archdiocese; recently it was taken over by the Dominicans, who are also the namesake of the nearby St. Dominic’s church. Known as the Order of Preachers, they are also an impressive order of Bingo operators. The pastor, Father Auggie DeArmond, was dressed in traditional white and wearing a red Santa hat. If there was a challenge, he was an authority that no one would question.
Anybody in the world whose name is Tony, or a derivative, owes his identity to St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), who was known for his preaching and his work with the poor and the sick, as well as a bonus skill of helping to find lost items. (Padua was also the town where Shakespeare set much of his play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” Anthony, rather than the Shrew, was presumably the more chartable of the two, although on this Bingo night he sent no winning numbers my way.)
At one point, a Santa, who had the physique of a local parishioner, stopped by to host an intermission and to lead the assembled congregants in a rendition of “Santa Clause is coming to town.” (He sang the song as written but nevertheless I wondered if he, of all people, should have his own verse proclaiming, “I am coming to town!”)
Tickets, at a dollar each, will get you as many bingo cards as you want. Other tickets can be cashed in for various sacred repasts of hot dogs, nachos (with cheese), beer, wine, soft drinks and a bag of fresh popcorn. (Most of the contents on my bag I kept for feeding the ducks in nearby City Park, though I was not sure if they accepted salted handouts.)
There were prizes galore, some of cash; others from area business donations, including baskets and coupons. A person in our group won a gift certificate to Angelo Brocato’s ice cream parlor and, in a drawing, $50 toward a lunch at Liuzza’s.
I, on the other hand, won nothing. I left carrying only my half-filled popcorn bag that was reserved for the ducks who would be bigger winners.
Nevertheless, there was a fa-la-la-ing feel to the evening with its songs; the jovial priests; the Christmas wishes and even the lazy dog who roamed beneath the table while sniffing crumbs. And maybe there would be a load of poinsettias headed for the altar.
I continued to be fascinated with the interplay of the Bingo numbers, which raised to this question?
When is the best time to arrive once the Bingo games are about to start?
B-4.
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BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS: Errol’s Laborde’s new book, “When Rex Met Zulu: And Other Chronicles of the New Orleans Experience,” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2024) is now available at local bookstores and websites.
Laborde’s other recent publications: “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at the same locations.
WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 9:30 A.M. Sundays. WYES-TV, CH. 12.
