By David Rogers. January 27, 2011. BLOWING ROCK -- With hungry folks lined up several dozen deep in the Blowing Rock School cafeteria before the serving line even opened, the 2nd annual Blowing Rock Spaghetti Dinner & Bingo event to benefit the school PTO got off to a rousing start Friday night.

Parent volunteer Virginia Powell, serving as cashier for the scrumptious spaghetti feed, speculated to Blowing Rock News that becoming an official Winterfest event probably helped this year. "Being in the Winterfest calendar helped us attract a lot of non-school diners this year," Powell said, in estimating that more than 300 were served. "It's been steady since 5:30 when we opened, and many of the diners are going on to play Bingo downstairs (in the school gymnasium)."

Blowing Rock resident Walt Bagstrom observed, "What a bargain for five bucks, and the spaghetti is absolutely great!"

After cutting, twirling or slurping generous helpings of spaghetti with all the fixin's, diners were invited to make a short trip downstairs where a Bingo game was waiting.  Players could purchase one card for $1, or six cards (to play simultaneously) for $5, and they were selling like hotcakes. The vast majority of players had multiple cards.  Dick (& wife Samantha) Simpson, who came up to the mountains for Winterfest from South Carolina, told Blowing Rock News, "We just love the good old-fashioned, small town fun.  I especially like watching the surprise and wonderment in the faces of the kids when they get a bingo. America may be facing a lot of economic adversity still, but events like this remind us about the important things in life -- and one of those is the smile of discovery on a child's face. Even though we are from out of town, we are so proud to be able to help this school.  And we learned today that this is one of the highest-ranking schools in the state of North Carolina. Being in a special place like Blowing Rock, somehow I feel like I am helping history by supporting this school."

Nearly all of the chairs at the long tables were filled and for almost all of the evening. The overflow participants sat where they could, laying out their cards on bleacher seats or chairs -- or wherever they could find a spot.  Most of the bingo players came down to the gym after enjoying the spaghetti dinner, but not all. Some just came for the bingo and, for almost all, winning the prizes were secondary to the simple pleasures of a simple game --- for a great cause.

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