Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, November 7, 2024. Reprinted with permission and gratitude.
By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy
“They now call it the ‘Bonnie Bus.’ It’s always going to be the ‘Bonnie Bus,’ and I don’t even know how it started…maybe one kid started that, and it’s the ‘Bonnie Bus’,” observed Bonnie Hammon, flipping the keys and as she’s used to having that weight hanging there when she’s not behind the wheel.
The Spring Valley resident hadn’t quite given up her driver’s seat yet in late September, but full retirement’s ahead as winter approaches and she’s determined that she doesn’t want to find herself on glare ice with a load of “precious cargo” buck led behind her in the Spring Val ley Rolling Hills Transit (RHT) bus she’s known to have driven around town for the past 11 years, so she’d been substituting until someone replaces her. Spring Valley’s residents expect to see – and can almost envision into reality – her running the 22-passenger rural transit bus’s route, picking up riders ranging from toddlers to senior citizens and getting them where they need to go, be it daycare to preschool for the junior set, or shopping and errands in Rochester for seniors who don’t have everyday transportation.
Hammon is known just as “Bonnie,” whom everyone knows. And she most certainly is “Bonnie,” whom everyone who ever boarded her buses loves. She can partly thank her family for their affinity for motoring the countryside as a career…and for her eventual affection to do the same. “My dad drove bus, and my mom drove station wagon for a while, taking kids who had disabilities to a school in Lanesboro. I helped on the farm, and I tried different things for a while. I started driving for HeadStart in 1984 – my son Jason was going to school – and the driver was going to quit, so his teacher talked me into getting my CDL. I drove for 29 years for Head Start, and the rest was for Rolling Hills – it’s all SEMCAC. I was always a driver, but I worked at HeadStart before that…I didn’t drive at HeadStart until 1984, but I was a volunteer before that.” She followed HeadStart from its classroom in Spring Valley to its new classroom at Ostrander’s church, then to LeRoy. She recounted, “I drove there for a while until they cut transportation.”
Fortunately, her timing was excellent in that she took the driver’s seat just when a need presented itself with HeadStart and perpetuated with RHT to provide her incredibly rewarding job security. “I got my regular license, then I got my CDL, and with that, I was grandfathered in with the school bus endorsement. To drive school bus, you have to take a test every two years and renew every four years, do a physical. I started driving a passenger van, and I went through three of those through the years, then I started at Rolling Hills and drove a 16-passenger van, and now I’ve been driving a 22-passenger bus with wheelchair seats.”
Each day as an RHT driver began early at a rented shed at the Spring Valley Sales barn. “I’d get up at about 6:00 because I was supposed to be there at 7:00. I’d be there about 6:40 to do inspections, get the bus warmed up. I’d be driving from 7:00 to 3:30 in the afternoon, then I’d have to do post-inspection.” The morning through afternoon with RHT could find her traveling any direction and on an established or unpredictable schedule, and the weather factored into her route, especially if it was forecast for freezing rain, in which case she’d rather that the school district cancel in advance than attempt to pull all students into class. “They’re (dispatch) good at keeping track of the weather in all the different Rolling Hills areas, but the hardest parts were fog at intersections…and driving on ice. I’d rather that the school call it before school than get there and turn right around again to get them home in bad weather.” And technology has changed how Hammon’s bus route was mapped and scheduled for her each day. “We went from getting printouts of where we’re going every day to now, when we’ve got tablets right on the buses so that we can just look it up.”
Hammon acknowledged that she didn’t give her youngest riders’ parents room to register too many complaints about minor details if they entrusted her with their children, and she didn’t give the children any slack when they were to buckle up and stay buckled into their seats. “If parents complained about something, I just would say, ‘I have precious cargo. They’re my responsibility.’ And the kids have to be in seatbelts. I had a rule that they had to stay seated. If they unbuckled their seatbelts, the bus pulls over on the side, and they knew what that meant right away.” Perhaps it was a stern eye in the rearview of the RHT bus, or a reminder that their parents would be notified that they weren’t being safe, but with her commitment to getting everyone to their destinations in good condition, it was for their own good and because she had grown to love each and every passenger, small or tall, sharing that her favorite part of being Bonnie on the “Bonnie Bus” was taking the best care she could of her “precious cargo.” She commented, “It was the people…the kids.”
She cited some of the reasons why she’s decided, in addition to winter’s weather hazards, that she wanted to hand over her garage remote and keyring. “Time and regulations put on all the CDL drivers…it’s getting overwhelming. They expect more and more, and that’s why they’ve got a shortage of drivers overall. You have to have first aid, CPR, defensive driving, all that stuff. They even had an obstacle course that you had to drive the bus through, and that’s where I’m an introvert, doing that stuff in front of people.”
Some things can be measured in mileage, but not Bonnie’s career. “Somebody asked how many miles I put on over the years. I don’t know. Not as much as a semi driver.” Instead, ATTENTION: All Veterans & Your Families she estimated that her career spans approximately 580 children, or the first and second generations of preschoolers in local families that now have elementary students, or by the shift in who her senior passengers were. “We used to take the nursing home residents fishing every year in Lanesboro. And I’ve taken a lady in her nineties down to coffee every morning from Monday through Thursday, and she said, ‘This is what I look forward to, getting out and down to coffee’.
It’s the people.” Retirement promises time to explore what she’d like to do now that the Bonnie Bus has someone else at the wheel. “My official last day was September 8 or 9, and my retirement party was September 28.” Volunteering in her community will fill her days and evenings, as she firmly believes in it. “Why not? You’re a part of the community. Volunteering is what makes a town grow. Every little hour helps. I have not been idle yet. I do concessions at the school basketball and volleyball games, I take tickets at football. I planned to be at Pinter’s on Saturdays and Sundays in October, and after October, it should be quiet until basketball starts. That shouldn’t be bad. I’m also working on my house. I plan to hibernate and lay low this win ter. I do what comes up, and my kids keep me busy. I’m sure my grandchildren will have ball games and concerts, and one of my grandchildren does barrels and poles riding horse, so we have to drive all the way to get there.” Her children often tease her for her notoriety. “Everywhere I go, even in other towns, I’ll see someone, and my kids will ask, ‘Can we go anywhere without you knowing anybody?’
I like to stay active.” And as for the “Bonnie Bus” becoming the “Doug Bus” for her co-worker, Doug, who drove it shortly after her departure, or any other name?
No question for her preschool precious cargo – it’s STILL the “Bonnie Bus.”
Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325
