Roll It, Sister!

Reconnecting over a Game of Bunco

By Renee Roberson

Jennifer Brinckerhoff from Kernersville, N.C., recently gave birth to her third child. Thanks to a great group of ladies in her town, she has a dozen frozen meals stocked up in her freezer to give her a break from cooking until she figures out the best way to juggle the demands of her two older daughters and newborn son. The women that provided the meals are all mothers just like Brinckerhoff, but they aren¹t from her playgroup as one might imagine. Nor are they local soccer moms, or women from her church. Instead, the 11 women are from her Bunco group that meets once a month.

Groups like Brinckerhoff¹s are popping up all over the country. Bunco is a progressive dice game that involves 12 players sitting at four tables. Rolling "three of a kind" with three dice constitutes a "bunco" and 21 points for each team consisting of two players. But the rules of the game are not what¹s important – it's the camaraderie that such get-togethers bring. Once or twice a month a hostess provides the location for the Bunco party, and the women typically bring potluck. Each player throws $5 into the pot at the beginning of the night and prizes are awarded at the end of the evening.

Bunco is providing moms a fun evening out with friends that is more interesting than just dinner and a movie.

According to the World Bunco Association, groups of women, school children and couples have been playing the progressive dice game in the United States since around 1855, when a shady gambler introduced the concept in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. The association also theorizes that a return to traditional family values and sense of neighborhood and community led to a resurgence of the game in the 1980s.

"We all support each other outside of the group as well," says Mississippi resident Sara Jaronitzky, a mother of one. "One of our members is a single mother. She had West Nile virus this past summer and we were all willing to pitch in to help her while she was in the hospital as well as when she made it home. We did everything from help her son, stay with her in the hospital, cleaned her house, cooked meals and sent her cards to cheer her up. Had she not been part of this community she may not have recovered as quickly. We were all so excited when she was able to return and play last month."

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