The mystery of bunco explained at the Sharon firehouse

I slipped quietly into the Sharon firehouse on Sunday afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bunco fundraiser for the fire company. I had no idea what bunco was, other than that it involves dice and sounds colorful, like something characters in a Damon Runyan story would play.

A handlettered “Bunco� sign on the firehouse door directed me upstairs. Odd, I thought to myself. I had imagined the bunco players stretched out along the cold concrete of the firehouse, decked out in pinstripe suits and fedoras, rattling dice and yelling, “Luck be a lady!� as they shot for, well, for whatever bunco players shoot for. Sevens and elevens, right?

No one was sprawled on the floor in the upstairs meeting room of the firehouse when I got up there.

And no one had on a pinstriped suit.

Pretty much everyone had on a warm, cozy sweater. All the players were women. Everyone was laughing and having a very good time.

When I arrived, they were clustering sociably around an enticing array of appetizers. Bunco, I discovered, is a game that is played in between hors-d’oeuvres and dessert (a big plate of brownies looked especially tempting).

The ladies stopped their pre-competition socializing and took a few minutes to show me how the game is played. I still don’t completely understand it but it seemed like a game that could be mastered with ease. I do remember, though, that if you roll three dice and get the same number on each of them, and if it’s the number you were trying to get, that’s a bunco and you are rewarded by earning 21 points and having to wear a pair of fuzzy dice around your neck. If you get three numbers on your three dice that you weren’t trying to get, that’s a baby bunco; you get five extra points but you don’t have to wear any fuzzy dice.

There are cash prizes, as well as prizes for the “losers.� I didn’t find out what those consolation entries were, but they were all wrapped in festive paper and none of them looked like they might explode if shaken excessively.

I didn’t stay for long. And I’m sorry to say, on behalf of the bunco organizers, that not many people attended, so not many funds were raised on Sunday for the fire company (there will be further opportunities for that in April, when the company hosts its April in Paris gala dance and art raffle).

But everyone seemed to be having an extremely fine time, with really good snack foods, so in that sense, the event was an enormous success.