About 100 years ago both my grandparents on my mother's side who didn't know each other yet independently emigrated here to New York from the Waterford area of Ireland, met here and married. We've only been to Ireland once, in 2008, and we met a lot of relatives whom we've kept in loose touch with on Facebook. One of my cousins was recently posting the Waterford Online Bingo - Dungarvan Football club's online Zoom Bingo on Facebook (her husband Colin calls the Bingo) - they usually had it in their clubhouse in the town of Dungarvan (on the coast -25 minutes from a surfing beach) but had to move it to a parking lot then online due to Covid.
So on their 6th week I messaged her that we would play and we did and it was really fun – it’s like you’re suddenly part of a small town in Ireland for a couple of hours on Sunday. They were very excited to have international players (which is something they hadn’t even considered) and they even put our picture in their paper. The following week, Christmas week, my other cousin from Ireland who lives in London heard about it so she played too and her mom from London and my mom with us and her cousins in their 80’s who she had only seen once all played too, saying hi to each other on Zoom, so the Bingo was in 3 countries that week. Then we had a lot of snow so I printed up their football team’s logo which I wore on my chest while playing and made them a snowman with the logo on it as well – which also made their local paper. And I wore my giant Panda suit once too.
Then they made me a member of their club and sent me a club jersey. This weekend, our ninth straight Sunday with them my son and his girlfriend of 3 years were with us. I asked her if her parents wanted to play from Detroit where they live and they did. We had never met them before so we met them on Zoom for the first time - via Ireland. Colin the Bingo caller of course told everyone how we were meeting the prospective in-laws for the first time – then he asked them 1. Are you loaded? 2. Will you pay for the wedding?
So its really been a lot of fun and re-connection with our family – who would have ever thought of something like that? When we can travel again I'm definitely going back to visit and to surf! Anyway if any of you want to play with us it’s on Facebook as “Waterford Online Bingo - it happens every Sunday at 2pm Eastern Standard Time – you can get on zoom at 1:45, eyes down at 2:15. It’s different than our Bingo and you call “Check” not “Bingo”. Here’s the link for this week – they call each Bingo Book a “Registration” and you can pay with a credit card. If you tell me you’ll be on I can give Colin a heads up and he’ll introduce you:
https://member.clubforce.com/memberships_cart_m.asp?LL_ID=1947&clb=1&fbclid=IwAR1GDwYMRQhyAC8PnmmXEiduxYNW8Bct8Sb2FygaBc6I4C4hj_qmTUoRB88
So on their 6th week I messaged her that we would play and we did and it was really fun – it’s like you’re suddenly part of a small town in Ireland for a couple of hours on Sunday. They were very excited to have international players (which is something they hadn’t even considered) and they even put our picture in their paper. The following week, Christmas week, my other cousin from Ireland who lives in London heard about it so she played too and her mom from London and my mom with us and her cousins in their 80’s who she had only seen once all played too, saying hi to each other on Zoom, so the Bingo was in 3 countries that week. Then we had a lot of snow so I printed up their football team’s logo which I wore on my chest while playing and made them a snowman with the logo on it as well – which also made their local paper. And I wore my giant Panda suit once too.
Then they made me a member of their club and sent me a club jersey. This weekend, our ninth straight Sunday with them my son and his girlfriend of 3 years were with us. I asked her if her parents wanted to play from Detroit where they live and they did. We had never met them before so we met them on Zoom for the first time - via Ireland. Colin the Bingo caller of course told everyone how we were meeting the prospective in-laws for the first time – then he asked them 1. Are you loaded? 2. Will you pay for the wedding?
So its really been a lot of fun and re-connection with our family – who would have ever thought of something like that? When we can travel again I'm definitely going back to visit and to surf! Anyway if any of you want to play with us it’s on Facebook as “Waterford Online Bingo - it happens every Sunday at 2pm Eastern Standard Time – you can get on zoom at 1:45, eyes down at 2:15. It’s different than our Bingo and you call “Check” not “Bingo”. Here’s the link for this week – they call each Bingo Book a “Registration” and you can pay with a credit card. If you tell me you’ll be on I can give Colin a heads up and he’ll introduce you:
https://member.clubforce.com/memberships_cart_m.asp?LL_ID=1947&clb=1&fbclid=IwAR1GDwYMRQhyAC8PnmmXEiduxYNW8Bct8Sb2FygaBc6I4C4hj_qmTUoRB88
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