PRPC Connections - Getting to know...

Bonnie C.

By: Morgan C.

There are people who arrive at the pickleball courts ready to make an entrance. Bonnie C. is not one of them.

Asked what her pickleball walk-up music would be, Bonnie didn’t hesitate much: “I like quiet.”

Which may be the most understated answer ever given by someone who has spent roughly 10 years playing a sport famous for the relentless pop-pop-pop of plastic balls.

Bonnie came to pickleball after years of playing tennis, and while she clearly enjoys the game, it’s the people around it who seem to matter most. Asked what the Paso Robles pickleball community means to her, she summed it up in two words: “Good buddies.”

That answer fits Bonnie. There isn’t a lot of unnecessary embellishment. Even during our conversation, she tended to answer questions simply and matter-of-factly, whether we were talking about pickleball, teaching, family, cooking or the rather spectacular ways life occasionally goes sideways.

Bonnie and her husband, Noel, have been connected to the Paso Robles area for more than four decades. They began traveling here from Huntington Beach in 1980 while looking for property, bought land in 1981 and built a home in 1985. For about 10 years they rented the house to others. After Bonnie retired, they began coming up every other weekend, and today they split their time between here and Southern California.

Before retirement, Bonnie spent 31 years teaching, including time in Southern California. Three decades in a classroom probably provided several skills transferable to pickleball: patience, keeping an eye on several people at once, and knowing that occasionally someone is absolutely certain they are right when they are not!

Away from the courts, Bonnie enjoys cross-stitch and is perfectly happy spending time at home. In fact, when asked for her favorite local spot to relax, her answer was - you guessed it: "Home."

She doesn’t have a favorite restaurant. She doesn’t have a particular post-game snack. And she isn’t waiting for someone to turn up the music. Bonnie has achieved a level of contentment that I can only hope to find one day. 

That doesn’t mean she stays home when visitors arrive. Her list of Central Coast attractions includes wine tasting, Paso Robles and heading to Morro Bay to see the otters — a pretty solid introduction to the region.

Bonnie and Noel don’t have children of their own, but their family tree has plenty of branches. They have numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, and five members of the generation after that.

Then there is Bonnie’s actual superpower. It's not pickleball, or teaching, or quiet time. It's Homemade caramels, baked beans and pie dough. During our conversation, it became pretty clear that Bonnie is serious about the homemade part of that equation. These aren’t theoretical skills listed because she once made a pie in 1987. Cooking and baking are part of the things she genuinely enjoys doing. Which means PRPC leadership may want to consider “Bonnie brings the caramels” as part of an official club policy.

But the most surprising Bonnie story has nothing to do with food or pickleball. On the questionnaire, she wrote: “I broke my leg in a three-way collision on horseback!!!” And yes, it really was one of those stories that sounds more ridiculous the more you picture it: multiple horses and riders converging, things going wrong very quickly, and Bonnie ending up with a broken leg. She was ten years old and spent a week in the hospital, back in the days when hospitals weren't trying to rush you out to free up a bed. 

For anyone tempted to think of her simply as the quiet retired teacher doing cross-stitch at home and showing up to the pickleball courts, there is considerably much more going on here.

After 31 years in education, decades connected to Paso Robles, roughly a decade of pickleball, a reputation for homemade caramels and at least one equestrian traffic accident, Bonnie has accumulated plenty of stories.

But when you ask her what keeps her coming back to pickleball, the answer isn’t complicated. It’s the people.

And beneath all the funny answers and unexpected stories, that may tell you more about Bonnie than anything else.