<bt>Bunko. It's not just a game but an excuse to gather with neighbors, chat, snack and have a regular girls night out on a regular basis.
Linda Herrick was the founding member of the "Lake Tree Bunko Babes," who meet once a month in their Burke neighborhood, with dice in hand. They hash out community affairs, update each other on personal lives, win a few prizes and occasionally compete with other bunko groups.
Herrick brought the game to the Lake Tree neighborhood, they all agreed. "I played when I lived in Atlanta," she said. "We talk more then we play."
Dianne Peikin agreed.
"Eleven of us live on this street. We talk about everything. It's an excuse to get out of the house. The game is almost irrelevant," Peikin said.
Peikin's daughter Dana, 24, knows where to go when the bunko gang comes over — upstairs to the television. She was 8 when the group started.
"It used to be a lot louder," she said.
Julie Kett liked the fact that it's a regular thing, one Wednesday a month. She felt that was the group's only way to get together.
"We wouldn't be able to get together if we didn't schedule it," she said.
Bunko is a dice game where the members, all 12 of them, divide up into three tables of four people. The two sitting across from each other are a team for that round. An official "bunko" is rolling three of a kind, in as many as two rolls, and points are tabulated. After a table gets to 21 points, players rotate and teams change.
No one seems to know the origin of the game, but there is a bunko Web site that has the rules, the bunko spelling controversy (bunco, bunko or buncko), scorecards, but nothing factual about the origin. The Web master learned it from "my mom and grandma played with a group of eight players."
THE SECOND THURSDAY in January was Peikin's monthly turn to have it at her house. The women show up around 7:45 p.m., they chat, eat cheese and crackers and sip wine. The game kicks off around 8:30 p.m. or so. Prizes are awarded for the most bunkos, most wins, second-most wins, spoon prize, who ends up with the spoon and booby prize, which is for the most losses. Each member pitches in $5 each night, and the prizes are bought with that. Nothing is etched in stone, though.
"If it gets to be 10 and we haven't started yet, we draw names and have dessert," said Herrick.
Lake Tree is just one of the communities in the area that has a bunko team. In the past, the Lake Tree group competed with the Rolling Ridge group. The women of Lake Tree dressed up for that occasion.
"I still have my dice earrings," said Meridith Muehleib.
One of the Lake Tree players passed away in 2000, and the group banded together and came up with a "Bunko Scholarship" for the surviving daughter, so she could go to college.
Fairfax Station resident Michelle Randall is part of a bunko group in her neighborhood, surprisingly known as the "Bunko Babes" as well. She is on one of three teams in the neighborhood.
"In our neighborhood, we have three teams. We play the third Tuesday every month," Randall said.
The social aspect weighs evenly with the actual game there, as well.
"We usually mingle for a half hour or an hour. Even though you haven't seen the people, it's a chance to catch up. I remember coming home at 2 o'clock in the morning once," she said.
The Fairfax Station group shares many of the same aspects as the group in Lake Tree with theme nights, food, alcohol and camaraderie. Oh yeah, no husbands, either. Randall remembers someone bringing a margarita machine once, that frozen concoction that helped them hang on, as Jimmy Buffet would say.
"That was fun," Randall said. "One lady had a back-to-school night. We talk about everything."
Food plays a big role, as well. Randall adopted her own rule for the snacks, and they even had a full dinner once.
"You don't want to eat dinner and come over for more," she said.