Free Space

Country Manor may or may not still be a social hall available for rent in New Bedford, Pennsylvania two buildings away from the state line with Ohio. In addition to private events, the building used to host public bingo ⇒ games on some Fridays. I tried searching business databases and calling a phone number that I found on the Web, but there was no current business record and the phone number was disconnected.

Pennsylvania bingo law ⇒ prevents commercial entities from running for-profit bingo games out of fear of supporting organized crime. Therefore, Country Manor was probably smart enough to not host the games. So far, I have not been able to uncover the third party, that is likely a church, responsible for renting out the social hall to host the games. If it was a church, the question that has to be asked is what stance that the denomination holds on secular gambling.

I do not gamble because I am frugal and have learned basic ideas about probability. If I were to gamble, though, I would not play bingo because there are more entertaining ways to lose money. The game is completely based upon the chance that the players is given the correct card and that they are quick about making the correct indications on their cards as the balls are read aloud. If I am going to take risks, I at least want some action. I am going to bother doing paperwork, I better not be losing money.

Donor Grandma * would participate and sometimes win bingo games held at the Country Manor. There were a variety of potential prizes to win. She hit bingo on at least three occasions when the prize was a shirt. She did not like these shirts and was relieved to give such winnings away.

Good Knight

The embroidered design on this shirt features an armored knight with lance riding an armored horse under the name of the building. The design alludes to chivalry and royalty. The reality of small town weddings and gambling usually deflates those that have wanted to engage me in conversation about this shirt. I understand; escapism into another romanticized time and place can be less boring than the life that most people lead in the current day. I do not indulge those fantasies because I want to experience reality, even if reality is just a string of boring events.

I must give Donor John* thought of the pun for this subject heading even if he objects to the Free Shirt Archive. An obvious pun that makes people groan is something that I will not deny myself or others.

Kind Of Blues

Amateur photography was practically cliche on the sites that the Free Shirt Archive satirized. The tradition is maintained for conceptual continuity. This photography displayed on this dossier, however, has unintentionally inspired questions that I shall answer below.

Why are the two blue shirts not considered identical twins? In real life, the blue color of the fabric is slightly different between the two. The analog camera that took the picture was of sufficient quality, but the scanner that scanned the developed photo was kind of cheap for the time. I no longer have that photo to rescan. Another thing to consider is that some video cards and monitors display such similar colors in different ways.

Why were the two blue shirts not taken in front of the door? At the time, I did not think to place a hanger on another hanger. Later on, I did.

Are those walls really painted red? Yes. I once had easy access to a red painted room wherein I could take snapshots of the pictures.