Bingo: 1938

Carnival bingo games of the 1930's and '40's were universally known as "corn games." Corn was the cheapest and most available marker and the individual grains were small enough to mark one square only.

The usual tab was ten cents a card, at a time when many men made just a dollar a day, and a lot of men were unemployed. Looking at the anxious expression on the center players face, I would guess that even a dime was a budget stretcher.

Out here in the west, the ladies at St. Patrick's bingo games used dry kidney beans.

Looks like the game hasn't started yet, since each card only has one kernel covering the "free" spot in the center. And the womann on the left really needs to stop biting her nails - that tiny nail on her index finger makes me cringe.

I love how these ladies are all so well dressed and groomed for the state fair. When I recently attended such a thing, tank tops, shorts and flip-flops were the norm. My bet is these women have not only nice shoes but stockings on, too. We've lost something.

I can remember going to Bingo games with my grandmother in the 1940s and using corn kernels for game board markers like these ladies are doing.

What? Just one bingo card each..no colorful marking daubers..and nobody smoking cigarettes?