Fun with the Bunco Babes

I play Bunco once a month with a group of 12-16 other women, mostly in the 50-70 age range. I know there are other Bunco groups in Red Bluff -- in fact, there was a charity event for Bunco sometime this past spring that drew a pretty good crowd.

So just what is Bunco?

It's mindless. Totally and completely mindless.

We eat. We giggle. We throw dice. We snack. We throw more dice. We count. We shriek with laughter when someone gets a Bunco. We eat more. Some of 'em drink wine. Some of 'em don't need to drink wine because they're loopy enough without it.

It is a girlfriends night out for all of us, and that is the real value of the game. It's been around since the late 1800s and there are groups who have been playing together for many years -- through marriages, births, deaths, cancer, grandchildren.

It's the personalities of the women that make it so fun -- that, and the light-up crown and Mardi Gras beads you get to wear when you throw a bunco (three of a kind in the correct number sequence of the round -- that is, you throw 3 ones in the first round of a game.)

There are just lucky people in this world, you know what I mean? They're the ones that win at the casino, always get a doorprize, probably win lottery money if they buy tickets. And we have a couple in our Bunco Babes group. They just always win something -- buncos, money (we each chip in $5 for the kitty, and then we divvy it up at the end of the evening).

There are the cooks: every time we meet at their houses, we eat very well -- all sorts of dips and hors d'oeurves and candies and sweets. Not much storebought anything there.

The queen: well, what can I say. She organized the group two years ago, is a bubbly, outgoing, fun-loving, funny person -- who was a friend of mine in another life too -- and last night she had us laughing hysterically and applauding when she .....

Umm. The first rule of Bunco is that happens at Bunco stays at Bunco.

So I can't tell.

(but one of us has pictures....)

We have women who were teachers, real estate agents, secretaries. We have moms and grandmothers. We have at least one writer (*grin*). We just celebrated when one of us got her pilot's license -- and oohed and ahhed over another's pictures of her first grandchild.

Everyone should have a Bunco group like this: girlfriends who are there for each other, to pat you on the back and say "there, there" when something is wrong, to laugh with over silly things, to cry with you when you hurt. I am grateful for these wonderful, solid women who are my friends.

Oh. Several of the husbands have started meeting during our Bunco nights too -- they're calling it "Manco" -- or "UnBunco." They watch movies where there are lots of loud noises, oftentimes guns, sometimes horses and sheriffs out in the Old West, or guys in fatigues crawling through jungles. They eat pizza and other manly snacks. I dunno if they drink beer too, but they seem to have a good time at Manco. Good for them.