First Posted: 1/6/2015
DURYEA — “Bingo!” will no longer be heard on Tuesday evenings in Duryea.
For the past 56 years, bingo has been played in the Germania Hose Company banquet hall and truck room on Foote Avenue. However, according to the fire department, those games will no longer be played.
The subcontractors which the hose company used to rent the space for bingo recently informed the company that it will no longer be holding games. The hose company itself ran the games up until five years ago, when it was starting to become too much of a burden on the members. Since then, it’s been run under a subcontractor’s name.
Back in the day, however, bingo on Tuesdays was a staple in Duryea. Vice president of Germania Hose Company Jim Steer remembers those days and he said the games attracted 80 to 85 people weekly — that was the number it needed to make the games profitable.
“It was tremendous,” he said. “It was a packed house all the time. Through the years, as people became older, they didn’t come around much – it started to slow down.”
Near the end, it was a stretch for the games to attract 50 people. There was no way they could make money, Steer said.
One of the reasons it started to really slow down, Steer said, was because of the local casinos popping up. Not only did the hose company’s bingo suffer, but local churches’ games as well.
“Everyone suffered,” Steer said. “Once the casinos came in the bottom dropped out.”
When a subcontractor took over at Germania, the hose company would just receive the rental money for the hall. Once they informed the company they would no longer be calling bingo, Germania had a decision to make.
Steer said the subcontractor told them, flat out, not to run any more games.
“They were in the hole just about every week,” Steer said. “They just told us that we shouldn’t continue.”
For the past several years, the Germania Scuba Team ran the kitchen each Tuesday during the games. It was the team’s main source of fundraising, although it does do several other fundraisers throughout the year.
“It was a great fundraiser for us,” Scuba Team Lt. John Amico said. “We’ll have to make it up somewhere else. It was a great money maker for us.”
Many of the die-hard bingo players were surprised there would be no more bingo on Tuesdays.
“They didn’t believe it,” Steer said. “But they just don’t understand what it costs.”
In order for the company to continue to run the weekly games, the company would have to put $5,000 up front. Then, each week, it would have to pay $1,200 to keep the games going.
Germania would like to thank the patrons for five decades of successful Tuesdays.
“We would like to thank everyone for their generosity through the years,” Steer said. “Without them you can’t have bingo.”
The Germania Hose Company is currently trying to offset that loss of revenue for the current year. It will be having an All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast from 7 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Feb. 22. Cost is $8 for adults and $5 for children. A dinner of some kind is in the works for the spring, as well.
Also, the hose company has started its annual truck drive. Letters were sent to homes seeking donations.
The hose company currently has 61 members.
