Hi Deri!

This is a greaaaaaaat story!!

Thanks for sharing it with us-Gary


On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Deri James wrote:

> On Friday 06 July 2001  5:29 pm, Linda Wagner wrote:
> > I think you are right Gary.  I mean I am a teacher, and a pretty
> > good one, if I do say so myself...but growing up, my own mother did
> > everything to get me to change my mind about a career in education.
> >  But, she also raised me to be head strong and independent so I
> > became a teacher anyway ;)  Many people who don't know me well are
> > surprised that I teach, but those who do know me know I could do
> > nothing else!  In fact, I don't think I could survive a job where I
> > sat all day...Nonetheless, I think that all people, disabled or
> > not, run into people who are skeptical about their career choices
> > and question their ability to "make it".  We tend to see it more
> > maybe, or perhaps take it more personally because we need to prove
> > to ourselves that we can do what we want to do with our lives and
> > aren't going to let CP stand in the way.
> >
> > Linda
>
> I successfully proved to myself I wouldn't make the worlds best bingo
> caller!!
>
> Back in my late teens I used to volunteer every fortnight at a local
> Mental Hospital for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon,
> talking or walking with the residents. Usually there were about 10 of
> us "regulars" (the other 9 being all 17yr old females from the local
> convent school  One day the convent Mini Bus didn't turn up, so I
> found myself as the sole volunteer.
>
> The sister on duty was not well pleased, since the staff had become
> used to this 2 hour "coffee break" while the volunteers looked after
> their clients. She had a brain wave. "We'll put all the residents in
> the Hall and you can organise a Bingo Session".
>
> I must admit I was a little dubious about the wisdom of this
> endeavour, but the confidence of youth, and the insistence of a
> Sister seeing the resurrection of her coffee break on the near
> horizon, found me, in short order, seated at a table, on the stage,
> with a velvet bag of 90 ceramic balls with numbers on and and a board
> with little indentations on.
>
> Now, it wasn't the cerebral aspects of the game which worried me, I
> reckoned I could cope with that, it was a dim recollection that the
> "best" traditions of bingo calling required aphorisms to spice up the
> action a bit, you know:-
>
>         "2 and 1 twenty-one (key of the door)"
>
> I seemed to remember that certain special numbers required a bit of
> audience participation:-
>
>         "8 and 8 eighty-eight (two fat ladies) (wibble-wobble)
>
> I was pleased the first ball was one of these "specials" to break the
> ice:-
>
>         "2 and 2 twenty-two (Two little ducks)"
>
> A long pause then someone said "Quack, quack", and I noticed several
> people scribbling furiously. I felt it was going well..
>
> I must admit to a certain foreboding when the 3rd, 4th and 6th balls
> also elicited loud "quack, quacks" from one person, and it did seem
> the very same people were marking their cards for every number I
> called.
>
> When the bag was about half empty I started expecting a call of
> "House". It was only when I placed the last ball on its indentation
> that I realised my calling was not going to be a bingo caller.
>
> Cheers
>
> Deri
>