Chilly's Bingo World.........

This past weekend I was able to spend a few hours with my oldest daughter and her two children, Abbey and Dylan.  They had gone to the zoo Saturday morning in Victoria where they had trick-or-treats with the exotic animals.  Abbey got lost.  It seems to be her favorite thing to do at the zoo. 

They arrived here a couple of hours early for the neighborhood halloween party the girl scouts were holding, so we took a drive into Hondo to the Wal-Mart.  Halloween is definitely in the air.  We passed by the "Maize" - a cornfield with a maze pattern where the local folks like to go to peak their Halloween experience.  There were a lot of people out for that as well as the pumpkin patches.

We arrived back at the community center just as the party was starting.  There were games for the kids (free) and a concession stand ($1 items) and also a sort of cross between a hayride and a train ride for the kids.  That was a big hit.  Abbey got her face painted.

We did a few of the games; pumpkin rolling, ring toss...  then Abbey wanted to try the fishing game.  The girl scout behind the curtain told me it cost $1 to play.  Are you sure?  Yes.  $1.  Well, okay.  So I gave her four quarters and Abbey fished out a spooky mechanical pencil.  Later I saw other people playing and not being charged a dollar.  Turns out I wasn't supposed to have had to pay, either.  So I got my dollar back and spent it trying to win a cake.  No cake, but got a cupcake for Abbey as a consolation.

There were a lot of nice costumes, but some were a little grown-up for the girls that were wearing them.  Everyone in a hurry these days, I suppose.  We had fun, it was a good afternoon.  There was another city-wide Halloween event in town but my daughter and grandkids were all pretty worn out and still had 2 hours to drive to get home.

Grandma was pretty worn out as well.

Sounds like you had a wonderful day chilly. I love the pumpkin patch!

I'm still wondering about how I got started liking bingo.  Somewhere in my mind I found a thought about watching Bingo on TV.  Y'all know I like my TV watching, so it seemed logical that maybe my brain was right about something here.

Now, I remember the horseraces on TV, and I remember Dialing For Dollars, and Celebrity Bowling and other things like that, but I'm not getting any more output from my memories on the Bingo on TV front.  It was *there* though, in my formative years:

Saturday Night TV Gambling!

Can you make money watching TV? You could in the 1960s.

Back in the wild and wooly days, television broadcasters were looking for any gimmick to get advertisers on board. As a new expensive medium, they had to prove television offered an intrinsic value that newspapers and radio didn't. Newspapers and radio had a decades long hold on local advertisers, the upstart TV station couldn't reach anyone they didn't already.

Quite frankly local TV ads were a hard sell given that the network programs attracting most viewers were concentrated during the nighttime hours.

Broadcasters were left with large swaths of daytime programming not consumed by soap operas and game shows to make their profit margins. That meant airing reruns of old shows or creating children's shows that offered advertisers a chance to connect with families in a way radio and print couldn't. Local chat shows was another way tolure viewers but they were weak tea, there was plenty of talk on the radio already.

In the mid-sixties a syndicated phenomenon revolutionized advertising and proved, once and for all, that broadcast video had a powerful and singular reach.

All Star Bingo offered viewers the thrill of a live Bingo game coupled with some of the biggest stars on television. Agnes Morehead, Ruta Lee, Judy Carne, Stubby Kaye, William Shatner, and many other tube favorites gathered to compete for a national winner that would receive $1000 cash if they had that coveted winning Bingo card.

But that wasn't the show's main appeal. By visiting an area grocery chain viewers at home not only had a shot at the big money but they could win other cash prizes every week, up to $100 for one local winner. This was back when $100 was one hundred dollars (around $700 in today's buying power). Shoppers collected as many cards as they could, one at a time (no purchase necessary).

TV Super Bingo was another interactive TV game where 2 celebrities, like Joan Fontaine and Professor Irwin Corey, acted as team leaders for real folks competing in a game that could net a local viewer up to 100 dead presidents, in addition to other smaller cash prizes for the runners up.

Bingo cards by the thousands flew out of the stores and grocers felt the power of interactive advertising. Not that radio and print weren't doing basically the same thing, with targeted promotions tied to original content, but TV broadcasters were combining must-see television with multi-media branding.

Along the same lines were Off to the Races, Racing Spectacular, and It's Racing Time!, bringing the excitement of thoroughbred racing to the home. If you visited the sponsor that week you had a big money stake in the winners. Didn't score in the first race? The colorful scratch-off tickets from the grocery store offered 3 chances to win on every show.

Grand prize for It's Racing Time was 100,000 Green (or Gold) Stamps to the national weekly winner with the top local cash prize - that magical number $100.

Greyhound Derby was another promotion in the same tradition with championship canines racing around the dirt track.

Enterprising shoppers could, if there were enough participating stores in the area, spend two hours on Saturday evening playing Bingo and betting on the horses, so to speak.

A large tote board at the local store listed the winners from the community, often with a polaroid photo next to the name. The winners were real and, gosh darn it, every once in a while you or someone you knew banked a buck or two. Of course, all of these races had been run long ago and the promoters knew exactly how many winning tickets to put out there; nothing was left to chance.

S&H Green Stamps, TV racing and Bingo cards - anything to get the customers in the door and in front of the family's new color television set. These innovative half-hour shows aired Saturday evenings around 5:00-7:00pm, the dinner hour when people were most likely to be at home, sandwiched between Roller Derby and Wrestling.

As successful as these promotions were they were relatively short-lived as people tired of the novelty. The payout wasn't worth keeping up with it and regular viewers started to notice the same races being run over and over.

By the end of the 1960s there was much more compelling syndicated content available, that crowded these types of shows out of the major markets and eventually from the smaller outlets by the mid-1970s.

Sitting around watching the coverage from the East Coast and seeing all the damage that Sandy has brought the US.  I'm kind of glad that there's something to watch other than election coverage.  Just sorry for everyone who was affected and are being affected and who still will be affected this coming week.  I see even the space shuttle Enterprise was damaged in the storm.

Halloween is tomorrow but I'm not too excited about it.  It's been a month-long spectacle with horror movies on TV and Mega-Superstore Halloween Costume Stores popping up everywhere.  I'm not a big fan of horror films or marathon Roseanne halloween specials, so my viewing choices have been altered for the season.  Oh well.  It's not always easy living in chilly's world.  Sometimes you just have to let other people enjoy the things they like to enjoy.  : )

On the fun side I got to see the other three grandkids, all boys, this past weekend.  We went costume shopping and ended up with a ninja, Luigi, and a policeman.  They couldn't wait to get their costumes on when they got back to Grandma's from the Halloween Costume mega-super store.  I hope they last through Halloween.

I am thankful that the next holiday is Thanksgiving!  I will have a little bit of money for bingo, and the specials last year were plentiful and good.  I'll also (I hope) have some birthday bonuses to look forward to the week before.  With some luck, I'll be playing all the way through Christmas!

I love this time until the end of the year for awesome bingo promotions. Omg i saw the episode of Rosy where Dan dressed as Marie Antoinette and Rosy's sister was under his arm like she was beheaded. I about died!!!!!!!!

I anticipate really good bingo offers through Christmas too chilly. It's the most wonderful time of the year! Tomorrow I hope to watch scary movies all night long.

I saw that episode too lips it was hilarious.

I'm hiding this little gem here for those of you who like to read about Chilly's Bingo World. 

It is the tamer version of "Chicken **** Bingo" from Austin, TX.  If you want to see a little more graphics with your video, well...just look and you will find.  I noticed at least one 'related video' where they were using an actual bingo card.  I guess the rules and method of play are different depending on where you are located.  Anyway, enjoy!

That's it.  HaPPy HaLLoWeen!

How could I forget Veteran's Day comes before Thanksgiving?!?  Nov. 11 we salute our Veterans and so do many bingo sites.  Look  for specials coming up- I've already seen them at Vista Gaming. 

Thank You, Veterans, for all you have done for all of us!

OMG Hondo is going to have Turkey bingo next week on Veteran's Day.  I hope it's not like Chicken Bingo.  I hope it's giveaway free Turkeys! Bingo!!!!

The electronic version of the newspaper says to "see ad" but they don't show the ads online.  Going to have to get into Castroville and buy a newspaper.  I'm excited and I hope I get to go and play Turkey Bingo.

don't forget to fall back this weekend.  we lose an hour, but I probably won't notice because I think I'll have some account balance going on and will be playing bingo!  Freeplay is great, but there's nothing like playing for real. 

Is this year really almost over?  Halloween was a big production, all month long!  And then poof!  Gone.  Done, done, on to the next one.

As predicted, I was able to deposit some bingo money today.  Yeah!  Not doing fabulously, but got some nice 350% bonuses to play with, and then the bbs...oh...the...bbs!!!  

Playing some Guy Fawkes day stuff tonight.  I'm needing to read up more on Guy Fawkes.  There was a guy (hahah) named Guy Faulks at my high school, so I've always been confused about this holiday.  Why?  Just my brain, and it won't tell me.

A girl I used to know from church when we were kids sent me a FB invitation to Farmville.  Don't get me started on Farmville.  Anyway, I sent her a message that I didn't play that, but I do play bingo online, and slots, so if she was ever interested, to ask me about it.

She wrote back, no...she was too "conservative" to play bingo.  Well, it was the Baptist church, so I understand if that's what she meant by conservative.  But I wrote back again and said I know...I don't go to casinos but I do play bingo online. (not entirely true, I'd go to casinos if I could!)

So she wrote back again and said the big reason, which we all know about, she can't afford to lose any money.  That I understand.  I had already mentioned free play possibilities...so all I wrote back was, me either.  But sometimes I do find $25 to spend and if I play right it can last for a month!  

It's true, but it's more likely it won't last quite that long.  Happy Guy Fawkes Day!  Good Luck!

PS While I was writing this I won $75 and $12.50!  Get in there and join in the winning!!!

Congrats on those wins Chilly, not huge amounts but something is always better than nothing ;)

Just an fyi, vista gaming sites used to credit the bbs around 8am.  Now they are putting them in shortly after their being won.  Nice, but not so nice when I didn't know all my bbs went in earlier than expected.  So no bbs there for me this morning.

I did receive them all, just didn't know they were in my balance.  Back to the freeroll.  TGFF.

Good luck on the freeroll chilly!

I don't know if you use the bingo site's facebook pages, but they sure do have a lot going on at some of them.  I'm kind of depending on them to get some playtime this week, so I hope that I win some bbs.  I really should sign up at some more myself!

I didn't get to go play Turkey Bingo in Hondo this weekend : ( . 

The waterpump went out on the car.  Managed to buy parts and then found a shop that said they could do the waterpump and also the front break pads needed replacing.  So, dropped it off, they kept it all day, and all they did was the brake pads.  Said the waterpump was too much work for them.  Hmmm.  Now I am trying to get my son to drive up here and work on it for me.  So, what happens with him?  He blew his head gasket on his car. 

He got it fixed but now has no gas money to get here so it will be Wednesday before he comes.  Hopefully it will be smooth sailing after that.

I haven't hit much in the bingo freeroll, but thank goodness it is there.  I totally forgot about the tourney room's free games Friday and Saturday.  I've been trying to write these things down, but it doesn't help when I forget to check each day!  I still sometimes think I need a keeper.  Well, maybe someday.