Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Hello, my name is Elaine, and I'll be your tour guide through South Central Los Angeles. Count my dough and smoke up I'm from California.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Where you from?
[00:00:23] Speaker A: So what? California? California?
[00:00:28] Speaker C: This is Los Angeles.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Where are we going? Westward ho.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: I just had a chance to listen to that chosen song, bro. Like, you really my brother, man. Thank you, bro. Like, damn, bro, that shit. If I were no thug, I might cry, nigga.
I told you, bro. Everybody I fuck with, you be to my main homeboy. That's like, hey, nigga, you got this.
You see, nigga, I changed my name. Pin Jesus online on a two K, bro. Thank you. For real, my nigga, I hope you're having a very beautiful day, bro. Wherever you are right now. I hope the sun is shining on you. Your children, your wife, your family.
You're an amazing fucking human being, bro. Thank you, my nigga.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Hey, check this out. Check this out o your boyfriend think that shitty doing cute how you look wrapped in the blunt hanging out the window with my you, nigga, this ain't what you want I know young and it's only go to see a upper pole you ain't got to check my temperature because I'm really cut.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: We all change our life at some point. Some of us used to be hot headed.
Catch an attitude real quick, right? Ready to fight or don't want to be bothered with people, things like that. But then as you get a little bit older, you start to appreciate life a little bit more, right?
Just a little bit nice. A little bit nicer than know a lot of sentimental stuff. Like them Disney cartoons hit different, especially during certain times of the year when fall, winter come around. I'm a totally different person. Totally different person than in the summertime.
Attitude is just different. Style is just different. Demeanor is just. My demeanor is just different, man.
But as much as we grow older, man, you start to realize that our elders, man, some of them are assholes, man.
All right, so, look, me and Marcy, man, we had to go. It was mandatory, right? We've been ducking it, right? We've been trying to duck and DodGE this whole bingo event that we had to do to raise money for the basketball team, for my son's basketball team, Chino.
So we out here trying to raise some money.
Now, to Marcy's credit, she did this the year before. I didn't do it. I dodged it. I said, I'm not doing that bullshit. And she was, damn, almost gone all day, right?
But this time they had us. You know what I'm saying? We dodged one weekend. They was like, well, you got to come do it this weekend. And the only alternative was to pay $300 each. Nigga, I'm not paying $600 for no household. And they said, if you got an extra kid on the team, if you got two players, or if you got more than just one player on the team, then you got to do it twice. You got to do however many kids you have. That's how many times you got to go back up there to do that bingo event, or you got to pay. I'd be goddamn.
I say I'd be God. And then when we're talking about both parents, I would have just lied and said I was single because we're not paying those $600 a household for those. Not for what? Them jerseys ain't even hard, bro.
All right. Team shoes.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: What?
[00:04:20] Speaker C: No. Y'all niggas is not wearing everybody's wear. Everybody's going to be identified as some different. Okay, when it comes to their shoes, them jerseys ain't all that. So I'm not sure what money we raising for what.
I don't get it. Anyhow. We had to do it. We go to the bingo joint. You know what I'm saying? I'm already mad because this is a Sunday and this is the week where McDaniels got fired. You know what I'm saying? So our Compton coach, you know what I'm saying? It's his first game coaching, and he coaching against his old squad. So I'm excited, man. I'm like, man, I'm trying to watch. I'm trying to watch this game, bro. Now, I could watch it on my.
Know the service wasn't the best over there, but we had action. And then it's like, I know I was going to have times where I couldn't watch it and I had to pay attention. So it's not like I could have it in my ear, right?
So I get to the event and I'm looking around liKe, damn, it ain't that many people here, but I'm knowing people going to show up because I've heard about Bingo. I heard how rowdy it could be. It's along the lines of spades, uno. It's along the lines of that.
It is. It's as dangerous. But I didn't know. I've never been in a situation in person where I've actually experienced the chaos of bingo players.
Now, like I said, marcy has. At the end of the day, she did it last year, but she did a different job. So there was multiple jobs to have.
You could do basically the food stand where you just sell food and snacks and things like that. Then there was another section where you would count, I think you would like, count cards or something like that. But you had to wait until everything was.
You had to wait until the whole entire event was over, right? And keep in mind they're sitting position, so you get to sit because they said, yo, if any of you all got a problem with standing up for a long period of time, let me know. We got some jobs where you all could just sit down, right?
So I said, okay. You know what I'm saying? I was about to, and Marcy even encouraged me.
She even encouraged me to get a sitting seat, but I'm like, no, I'm away. Something told me to wait, right? And that's what I did. I waited and I waited until she went down, until she went through all the job titles, because I wanted to know, right? So outside, like I said, outside of the person that's counting the tickets, and then there's the food, and then the other ones were called, I want to say the other position was called runners, where there's multiple games within side bingo itself. So, mind you, the main bingo game hasn't started, right?
And people were nice.
As people was coming in, people were nice. And we have all ages, but I want to say that the main demographic was like anywhere between late thirty s to mid 70s, right? That's a wide range. But I've seen some people in there as young as young as like, 1918, 1920, somewhere around there, there's very few of them, but they were in there. They had whole families up in there. You could tell it was like sisters and mothers and grandmothers and shit like that.
And like I said, early on, everything was gravy because Bingo hadn't started yet. The runners was out there. So we got these cards. There was like, these cards, and they will be worth a dollar. You know what I'm saying? If you're a winner, they worth a dollar.
But then there's like a $300 ticket out there.
We had like 14 boxes to empty. We had 14 boxes. Each stack of cards was like 25 cars each. And at one point, you would go back and forth. It was real life, like selling drugs. And we was Corner boys. We would go back, re up, and just go pass the tickets out. And the tickets would have a theme name, you know what I'm saying? It should be called like, I don't know, some shit called, like, bubblicious or some shit like that.
But they'll know what it is, though, you know what I'm saying? Some of them would check and see how much the wager is, but for the most part, they know what it is. So Bingo is a whole. I had to look this up. I had looked up and see if Bingo was a form of gambling. And it is. It's almost the original form of gambling. Right?
These motherfuckers, boy.
So we run it and everything is good. Now, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I took an edible. I did.
I did take an edible. I did. I'm going to tell you why. Because I just wanted to enjoy the rest of the day.
I was going to miss most of the Raiders game, which indeed I did. I got home in time to see the fourth quarter and things like that.
But we had to be there at 09:00 and they said we was going to be there from 09:00 a.m. To 04:30 p.m.
That's a shift.
That's a worksheet. So now I'm going to just kill a suspense. No, we didn't. We didn't have to stay. Remember I told you the Raider game started at. The Raider game started at 115 125, something like somewhere around there, right? It was the afternoon game. We left shortly, I want to say around halftime.
No, well, I want to say a little bit somewhere in the third quarter, because I got to see some of the third, some of the fourth, or something like that at the crib.
But yeah, they had different cards and stuff like that. And the thing was, as a runner, you had to come back, collect the money, collect the cards, and it has to basically even out. If not, you got to pay the balance or try to figure out where you went wrong. But trying to figure out where you went wrong when you're walking around. Now, here's the thing.
There's like seven or eight rows, and it's from one end to the other end. It's a lot of fucking people up in there. A lot of people up in there.
Different ages, shape, sizes, races, all kind of, man, it was just different, bro. It was different. There was a black table. Yes. I labeled some of my tables. It was a nice table. There was a Norco table. I'll explain the Norco table. Then there was a black table where there was a mother. Wait, a grandmother, a mother, a daughter, maybe a friend or a niece or something like that, maybe, and an aunt. And they were all sitting in together or whatever. But let me tell you, though, they tried to pull the black card bullshit on me.
They tried to pull the black card bullshit on me. Pull me to the side, like, yeah, come on, we got to stick with each other. And you post to be making sure. You post to be looking out for us. In my head, I'm like, okay, I'm building a relationship with some of these people, right? But then my antennas went up, and I was like, wait, they trying to fool you? This is gambling, bro. They're trying to work you. They working towards your emotions in your heart, and they're going to try to milk you. And sure enough, they did, because it were times that they got attitudes. And these older chicks was out there flirting in front of my wife, and my wife knew it.
That's a fact. That's a fact.
The grandmother was throwing out slick shit in the beginning, but then when she wasn't hitting nothing like that, she started getting attitude. And then I will walk by, and she would have smart remarks and shit like that. Her daughter wants something big, and her daughter started out talking shit. First her daughter started talking shit, talking about, I ain't taking no cars from you. You ain't gave me no good cars yet. Some bullshit like that. I was like, in my head, I'm like, whatever.
And the mom was spending, like, stacks on. Well, not stack. I mean, it was $20 here, $40 there, $50 there, shit like that.
I got to get to that towards the end, how much money, I think they got. But, yeah, the daughter was saying all kind of, like, slick shit and stuff like that. And then once the mom got an attitude towards me, she says shit like, that's why your wife is faster as far as distributing the cards and stuff like that. And I wanted to cuss so bad, but I didn't.
And I said some corny. Like, that's why I married her. Some corny shit. Like, I had to say something, though. I didn't want to walk away not saying anything, but there was a couple of times where I did walk away and didn't say anything, or at least said something under my breath because it was messing up my high.
And that was the thing. Edible had hit. So everything is like, I'm mellowed out. But they over here talking cash shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, they get in the attitude, and it really didn't start to kick in that attitude shit. Didn't start to kick in to the bingo game. The actual original bingo game started.
They had problems with the lady that was picking the lottery balls out of the thing. They were saying. She was going too fast. And these motherfuckers had.
They let loose, bro. Like, they disrespectful.
These old people mouths is, wow. Even the black lady was like, I'm too old. She said, I'm too old to be such and such, like nice or something like that. I said, that's a wild take. That's a wild take on the Sunday, bro.
You all miss Church for this.
You all miss Church for this.
And I could see how deadly this could be. I wanted to go home so bad, but it was a sign in and sign out sheet, and I was not about to fork over no 300 or 400. I mean, $600.
And truth be told, I think if the coach finds out or something like that, I think he would hold it against my son, to tell you the truth. I feel like that's another whole nother story. But yeah, these motherfuckers is rude. So it's getting down to the last couple of boxes, but then after the boxes, we got to cash them out. And that went back by faster than what I thought it was, because they was like, yeah, well, after this, after you all cash them out, then you all could leave. So there was another job outside of the one we was doing, and these two other guys had got it. They was so jealous that we got to leave at like one something a little bit after one something.
I was happy that we didn't have to stay until 430. But like I said, dog, bingo. When it comes to that bingo living, if you've never done one, just know, nigga, if you get offered or if it's mandatory or something like that, if you can avoid it, please do, because you're going to run into so much attitude when you get up in there and you're getting it from all angles, dog. Male, female, older people, their mouths is out of control.
They make you want to fight them. No, you want to slap box somebody right then and right there. Some of them were super cool.
Some of them. You had your favorites. I did. There was one table called the Norco Table.
These are cowboyish. These are white cowboy people.
I don't know what to say.
They live more of that cowboy, that cowboyish life. The city itself is called Norco. And it's like a cowboy type of town. You know what I'm saying? They wear the hats and they ride horses and shit over there. You know what I'm talking about, man.
And there was these ladies, and it was about like four or five of them, but they were like, super nice. They remember my name.
I believe they were a little bit of flirting involved and stuff like that. Older women. Older women. And it's scary. It's scary.
Too many angles of just too many different things going on. At one time, it made me a little nervous, but they got a little spicy.
They got a little spicy towards the end. But then obviously when we wrapped everything up, they was cool and things like that. But that bingo really set it off, you know what I'm saying? Because that is big cash.
I gave some tickets to this one lady, and she was like, let me have two tickets. One ticket at the bottom, one ticket at the top. That's how she took her ticket. Like, to superstition. These things got Buddhas and stuff like that. That bingo is serious. I think it's got to be. I don't know.
I can't say that it's more violent than spades, but I can say the attitude is unmatched. I've never seen that type of attitude in my life. That attitude made me want to fight everybody up in there.
Everybody. And I know I could beat up everybody up in there. I know I can. That's a fact.
And I tag team with my wife. We are whooping somebody's ass. 99.9% of that roster.
So much attitude up in there. So much attitude up in there. I do not want to do that shit again at all.
My kid would have to switch goals.
We're not doing that. We're not doing that. Or next time I'm just going to save up the money because I'm not dealing with older people. Am I going to be like that? I feel like it is fire, though. I feel like just waking up, being an asshole for no goddamn reason. I feel like it's fire. But I didn't want to deal with that shit that day. I did not. And I dealt with it, and I'm still talking about it because this was weeks ago. This was weeks ago. I mean, this was weeks ago.
And that shit still bothers me because somebody got slapbox with me. One of them. They got to come up off of that walker. They got to come because he was talking a little too much, man. Talking a little too now to me, I'm like, yo, but I got an idea from it. I'm like, can I run an underground bingo thing? Is that legal? Are they going to shut my shit down? Because you know how much money they spent?
There was a white guy up in there, super cool dude, right? We were like friends in there until we left.
Until this day, I still think, like, man, we probably would have been cool, like bar sports cats or whatever. He's a Green Bay packers fan, but I have a chance to see him again because he may have a child on the basketball team, but we'll see.
But we was out there. We was like, this is like selling dope. It was literally like selling dope. You know what I'm saying? We're picking up $5 here, $5 here, $20 here, $40 here, $50 here, $100, et cetera. Then I had to do some math shit one time where this woman wanted like 17 cards. She gave me $100 bill, but I didn't have any change. And then this person was like, well, just give me this, and then you can give her this. And I'm like, yo, everything felt like algebra at one point, but I didn't let them push me. I didn't let them, you know what I'm saying? And they had some smart ass remarks. They had some smart comments, but it's all gravy, man.
It's all gravy. Some of my. I did have to poke my chest out and raise my voice just a little bit. But for the most part, I ignored that shit for the most part. For real talk. But that shit was crazy how they was talking. The way they was talking was just foul off top. Like, I still want to fight. I still want to fight. Bingo, bro. They made so much money. Like I was saying, old boy was saying that one table that he was going to, this one particular lady, this Asian lady, he said she had to spend close to like 2000, just alone herself, two stacks.
And like I said, I'm picking up $20 here, $40 here, $100 here, $50 there. Like every go around. Remember I told you it's like over like 14 boxes, 25 a stack. It's a lot of them.
And they was buying that shit. And that wasn't even the main bingo game. I'm not even talking about the bingo game. And every time somebody won, you can feel the tension in the air. It was so much attitude. So much attitude.
Godly, I ain't never wanted to fight somebody that old in my life, ever. But that day, it was a few of them. A few of them. Bingo is scary. It's a scary situation. I'm letting y'all know now. The experience I'm trying to tell y'all was not Gucci at all. PleAse be aware, understand what's going on. If you do want to volunteer and do that shit, just know you went for a dog fight. That shit is not for the week. It's not for the week. I hate those bingo players. I hate to say that, but goddamn, that's how they made me feel like we could knuckle up right now. It's time to go on a thunder.
It's time to knuckle up, because that's how much shit they was talking. And Marcy, she said, I told you, I told you, there's no other way I could have drew this up. You had to experience it for yourself. I did not like that shit. I hated that shit so much, I got mad at my son, like, nigga, you what?
Yeah, well, I mean, that's what it was, bingo buckle. And then I was like, maybe I should just make some merch and see if that'd be my demographic right there, if I can get a bingo shirt off. Oh, my nigga, I'm going to work on that, though.
There was a lady there that said, if they are getting on your nerves or they are bothering you and stuff like that, tell them that they will get Bingo karma. And he said, she said, that'll straighten them up. I said, that's a while. If you tell them that you wish bingo karma on them, I guess it sets them straight. Scares the shit out of them.
You learn something new every day, dog. But the amount of money they would get, I'm not playing. If I could run a bingo tournament every goddamn day, two, three, four times a day, I'd be a stay at home yo, man. And I haven't played bingo since I was a kid, so I really don't know these side games to it. But Jesus Christ, man. That's my experience with Bingo, man. I did not like it at all. That was the worst experience I've had in my life with any type of elderly person. Them motherfuckers was mean, so I guess it's true. The older you get, the meaner you get. And just grump. These motherfuckers was grumpy. And some of them was nice. Most of them was grumpy. Catch these hands. Catch these hands. Twelve cow, I wanted to fight somebody. Twelve cow, I did.
I really wanted to fight somebody and just slap box, open hand, open hand, no closed fists. Because that had turned into attempted. Let me just slap somebody.
That shit is crazy, man. Y'all buy some merch, man.
