Apparently, this thing called the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is the feeling that others are having more fun than I am. Now that I’m at the “stay off my lawn” stage of life, FOMO doesn’t exist. I’ve moved firmly into JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out. I’m perfectly content to spend my days at home on the Proctor, MN frontier, walking the dogs, puttering in the yard, and going to bed early. I don’t care that I’m missing out.
A recent shift from my daily JOMO routine was prompted when our daughter Jess gifted her mom four tickets to ‘Music Man’ for a one-night show in Duluth last week. I agreed to go, knowing that the Bohunk, who has watched The Music Man movie countless times and attended more stage productions than I have toes, would enjoy it.
Although JOMO is my preferred style, I made an exception for this play. The guy playing Professor Hill was no Robert Preston, but the production was great, and I earned brownie points with ‘she who must be obeyed.’ I refrained from posting about it on the Book of Face, avoiding any risk of triggering FOMO since the show was a onenight event.
Last Saturday, I managed to overcome my reluctance to being sociable and accompanied the Bohunk, daughter Jess, and granddaughter Chloe to a Purse Bingo event at Blackwoods Grill, a couple of blocks from home. A few months earlier, I went with them to River Inn Bar & Grill in Cloquet for a similar event.
If you’re curious about Purse Bingo, here’s what I learned from joining these outings:
Purse Bingo is offered by the Irving Community Club several times a year to raise funds for its mission. Like regular bingo, players buy in, get their game sheets, and haul out their daubers (I know how that last part sounds when you read it out loud). The lucky person who claims bingo wins the right to choose one of the dozens of high end designer handbags rather than pictures of dead presidents. Granddaughter Chloe became the first in the family to win at Purse Bingo, claiming a designer purse that’ll be fashionable and useful when she returns to school later this year.
As an observer of people, I get a kick out of seeing the variety of women, and a few men, as they get ready for the purse snatching bingo that starts at 1:00 PM. The doors open at 11, so players and their guests can get set up, socialize, and enjoy the venue’s fine cuisine– okay, tolerable cuisine.
The Irving Community Club is a public charity and neighborhood organization rooted in the Irving area of West Duluth, near the Lake Superior Zoo. It has long been a key advocate for Irving Park. After the 2012 floods destroyed the original community center and hockey rinks, the group worked on long-term plans to rebuild the park with new playgrounds, sports courts, and gathering spaces. The club exemplifies community action, serving as the financial and organizational backbone of the neighborhood and preserving its spaces and local voice. True grassroots action that brings people together.
For groups like Irving, Purse Bingo is more successful than a standard raffle because it brings people together, drawing participants from across the area who might not otherwise support a neighborhood fund in a long established blue collar neighborhood, but will attend for a chance at a designer handbag while enjoying food, drink, and socializing.
For the last two Purse Bingo events that attracted the three generations of Fernlund women, son-in-law Matt and I showed up for the pre-game lunch. As the ladies get their gear set up and the caller begins rattling her cage, the two of us make ourselves scarce. Matt goes off to do whatever it is that a SIL does when no one else is around on a Saturday afternoon. Me? I return home to withdraw into my shell and watch television until the dogs decide to bark at a squirrel that is brave enough to cross our lawn.
Jimmy Buffett’s song “He Went to Paris” captures JOMO perfectly:
Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin’s
And drinks his green label each day
Writing his memoirs, losing his hearing
But he don’t care what most people say
As my hearing and eyesight fade, I find immense peace in this “stay off my lawn” and JOMO phase of life.
