Can you believe all this great food and white elephant bingo for only $3 per person? Wow!!

The first Spring Event to be held under our new name of the “Texas Instruments Houston Alumni Association” (TIHAA), and sadly the last to be held at the Stafford site, was well attended by retirees and guests in the Stafford Auditorium. The “Snacks and Bingo” evening took place on Friday April 26th .

58 retirees and guests had pre-registered and paid but only 44 showed up. Fortunately there were 6 people who signed in and paid on the day bringing the total attendees to 50, which was disappointingly much lower than last year when we had 69 people attend.

Tony & Susan get things off to a good start.

Our Bingo caller, "Bingo Don", was great.

Ralph, checks Mary Lee & Howard's cards.

On arrival, members were greeted by Bob Gruber and directed to the sign in tables manned by Israel & Nora Morales, and Daryl & Brenda Moss. Gary Luckett and Tony Leigh manned the Finance table, collecting a $3.00 entrance fee from those who had not paid to attend and a $5.00 donation which entitled Members to play Special Bingo for the 17 valuable prizes under the care of Mary Gomez and displayed on tables at the front of the Auditorium. Each member attending had been asked to bring two loosely wrapped gifts for the White Elephant Bingo and these were collected by Marian Gruber and Kay Cook.

Members sat at tables decorated with a seashore theme prepared by Susan Leigh and had a selection of pub mix and goldfish crackers to snack on along with their drinks of coffee, tea and water provided by Estella & Ralph Garcia.

The event was due to start at 6:30pm but was late starting since we were waiting in the hope that some of the no shows would turn up. At 7:45 pm Susan Leigh invited everyone to go to the Buffet Table and help themselves to the selection of finger foods, ham filled croissants, Chicken wings, Pretzel dogs, various cheeses and crackers, vegetable trays and dip, and fruit trays. On separate tables the selection of desserts were brownie bites, mini cinnamon buns, mini blueberry muffins and cookies. Members ate and followed our club motto “We socialize together” until 7:30 when our Club President Lucy Salas introduced herself and thanked Susan & Tony Leigh, and Estelle & Ralph Garcia and all the other volunteers for organizing the event. Lucy closed by thanking everyone for coming.

At 6:45pm Susan announced the start of the White Elephant Bingo. Gifts would be handed out by Marian and Kay and “You get what you get. It might be a diamond ring or a bag of rocks. (This caused a laugh), The only time a gift can be rejected is if the winner recognizes it as one they brought. Ralph read out the Bingo rules and with that, it was eyes down as Don Stefan started calling numbers in his characteristic “booming” voice. No need for microphones when Don is bingo caller. It is always a pleasure to see Don and Lynn as they now live in Conroe, many miles away from Stafford, but made the trip to the Bingo so that Don could do his usual great job as caller.

The bingo games were overseen by Ralph Garcia who does an excellent job of keeping things organized. We started with Regular Bingo (Any Line or 4 corners) for White Elephant prizes and the games continued until all the prizes had been given out to the winners by Marion and Kay. The White Elephant star prize game was a “Coverall” game for a $25.00 Walmart Gift card and was won by Bernadine Dennis. There was then a short break for drink and food refills before the Special Bingo started.

Great Super Bingo prizes displayed.

Marian & Kay "guard" the white elephants.

42 members paid $5.00 to play for the Special Bingo prizes. All in all, 46 cards were sold with 3 hard core bingo players playing more than one card. There were cheers and sighs as each of the prizes were won and given out by Mary Gomez. The winners were Marian Gruber - Bissell Lt. Wt. Vacuum Cleaner, Delores Baugh – Purse/Pashminas and watch, Norma Gann - Counter top oven, Estella Garcia – 12 speed blender, Sharon Tyler – Shopping Trolley, Julie Love – 3 piece jewelry set, Dora Mireles - Blue/white crochet blanket, Jeannette Johnson- Pink/white crochet blanket, Betty Parker – Cordless drill and flashlight set, Victoria Leigh- Tool Set, Kay Cook – Green/white crochet blanket, Ralph Garcia – Garden hose and pruner, Della Du Hart – Velour throw blanket, Dora Mireles - Mens Grooming kit, Nora Morales – Blood Pressure Monitor.

The $30.00 Cracker Barrel Gift Card was won by Thomas Johnson and the Grand Prize $50.00 Walmart Gift Card was won by Bernadine Dennis.

Thanks are due to Lydia Barker for donating the three beautiful Crocheted Blankets and Susan Leigh for the two Pashminas and watch.

Susan and Tony would like to thank the TIHAA Members who helped make this event a great success and Susan thanks their guests Victoria and Rhonda Leigh, whose help preparing the food and table decorations, she could not have managed without.

The following members and guests were in attendance:

Abe & Connie Abdalla, Kelly Allison, Lydia Barker, Ferol Beer, Dolores Baugh, Gloria Byers, Howard & Mary Lee Cameron, Beverly Cayton, Carlene Chaney, Helen Colwell, Lawson & Kay Cook, Delma Hogan Cotton, Bernadine Dennis, Betty Dixon, Della Du Hart, Norma Gann, Lilian Garcia, Ralph & Estella Garcia, Mary Gomez, Bob & Marian Gruber, Susan Harrison, Jean Houston, Thomas & Jeanette Johnson, Tony & Susan Leigh, Rhonda Leigh, Victoria Leigh, Julie Love, Gary Luckett, Dora Mireles, Israel & Nora Morales, Daryl & Brenda Moss, Diane Murray, Betty Parker, Gladys Price, Veronica Roberson, Gigi Roep, Lucy Salas, Don & Lynn Stefan, Charles Sumrall, Sharon Tyler, and Dorothy Wanza.