For Love of the Game Bunco Group Rolls the Dice for Decades
By Regina Elling

The local Bunco players meet monthly. Front row seated, from left, Sharon Coble, Robin Stewart, Cathy Youngquist and Debbie Maas. Standing, Kathy Laws, Loretta Donham, Jackie Pankrast, Teri Struiksa, Cecil Beaty, Gina Chisholm, Marcia Lewis and Yvonne Lewis.

My husband calls it giggle-dice," says Terri Struiksma. And after attending just one Bunco night, it's easy to see why.

The dice roll and the laughter flows at least once a month, when a group of Ramona women get together to play Bunco. Even after nearly 30 years of the monthly meetings, the group has just as much fun as in the beginning.

"It was held at my house the very first time back in February 1981," says Yvonne Lewis. "When we first got together, we were neighbors and casual friends. We are much more now."

"The luckiest roll of the dice in my life was the day I rolled to play Bunco," says Sharon Coble. "Instead of just a game, I won an extended family."

Bunco - also spelled Bunko or Bonko - is played with three dice. The game goes in rounds, with the goal being to throw three of a kind of a specified number (or roll a Bunco). Players change tables after each round so that they don't play with the same partners twice in a row.

The Bunco group consists of 12 individuals; three tables of four women each. At each of the tables on a recent January night, the conversation flowed and changed topics as quickly as the dice were rolled.

As the ladies at one table discussed events at their various jobs, another team member lamented her bad luck playing that night. Throughout the night, the women covered family matters, a potential problem in one neighborhood, issues from the recent wildfires and just some plain old good laughs.

In-between all the activity and chuckles, there were excited yells of "BUNCO."

"It is just a lot of fun," says Kathy Laws. "We've been together a long time. Our children were all in grade school when we started."

Struiksma, Coble, Lewis and Loretta Donham - the charter members of the group - have been playing Bunco together since 1981. Some of the players, such as Laws, Cathy Youngquist and Debbie Maas, have been playing with the group since the early 80s.

"Once someone joins, it is rare that they leave," says Donham. "Even though we have a list of substitutes, we seldom have to call them."

The women are quick to reminisce about the early Bunco days.

"Kathy's daughter was less than a month old when she came to her first Bunco get-together after giving birth," says Donham. "That child had 12 mothers that night - we all took turns holding her."

Now, several of the group members are grandmothers, and their grandkids, naturally, are often a favorite topic of conversation throughout the game.

Two of the women now share a grandchild, as Coble's son married Stewart's daughter. Marcia Lewis and Yvonne Lewis are, respectively, daughter and mother-in-law.

But no matter what the roll of the dice turns up, the Bunco group is about much more than just the game.

"We can honestly say we have as much fun losing as we do winning," Maas says.

The women take turns hosting the group, and several of the monthly meetings have themes. For example, the November (Thanksgiving) meeting is traditionally a potluck dinner. December is also potluck, and the women pick "secret pals" for Christmas and birthdays. For Halloween, they dress up in their old pajamas.

"It gets us out of the house and allows us to cut loose a bit," says Donham.

"Everybody should play Bunco," says Laws. "Really, they should."

To find out more about the Bunco group, call Yvonne Lewis at 760-789-8579.