All good things seem to come from Austin, TX. I love that city and I used to go there a lot. Seattle and Austin are like sister cities. It’s one of my favorite places for so many reasons. Modern day Flat Track Roller Derby was born in Austin as the Texas Rollergirls. TXRG is the league that helped the Rat City Rollergirls get their start, but that’s another story for another post. You know what else came from Austin (according to me, I don’t know where it came from before that)… Chicken Shit Bingo!
The one and only time I ever experienced Chicken Shit Bingo (before recreating it in my backyard), was at Ginny’s Little Longhorn in Austin, TX. It was 2004 and I was there taking pictures for (the now defunct) Tablet magazine of the South by Southwest music festival. Some friends of mine, from Seattle, had moved to Austin and they knew about Chicken Shit Bingo at Ginny’s, so they took me there.
Dale Watson was playing that day and my friends told me that he played there most Sundays. I paid a buck a square for a few squares, in hopes that the chicken would poop on one of my numbers and I would win the pot. I loved that everyone was just hanging out around the bingo board, drinking their Shinerbock and waiting for the chicken to shit. I didn’t win that day, but I sure as hell didn’t forget what I had seen either.
So of course, once I got chickens, we had to make a chicken shit bingo board so we could play some chicken shit bingo! Our board has 108 squares, so in order to maximize the potential winnings, you need quite a few people to play, so we typically only play it at large gatherings. We’ve hosted Thanksgiving a couple of times and played it then, but chickens go to bed when it gets dark out, so with the short and cold days of November, it’s not the ideal time of year to play.
Summer is the best time to play and my birthday is in July, so it has become a bit of a birthday tradition! With the addition of so many little ones into the mix, our version of chicken shit bingo has morphed into the board being on the ground (so the kids can see) and the word “shit” being replaced by the word “poop”, when in their presence. None of that changes the fact that it’s still gambling with chicken poop!
Here are some pics from this year’s Chicken Shit Bingo birthday party. Special thanks to Dan and Amy for taking such great pictures!
This post has been in the queue for awhile and the timing of it, and the mention of Austin, happens to coincide with the recent death of a friend who was living in Austin. I’d like to dedicate this post to the memory of Damon Baldwin. Rest in peace my friend, you will be sorely missed.
Hi Lilly~
I loved your post about chicken shit bingo!! We had a great time coming over that day. I will make sure and show the girls that their pictures made it onto your blog!!
Oh yeah, I should have mentioned something about Jayla and I winning $40 each because the chicken pooped on the line between our numbers, so we split the pot. That was awesome!
Always a good time when the poop goes BINGO!!