Long time Post Officer worker retiring to different ZIP Code
April 04, 2012
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Ken Taubel was at his regular post behind the counter, systematically stamping envelopes, applying labels, taking money and chatting with customers while counting the days until he get can out of Dodge, or at least the 93060 ZIP Code.
Taubel is retiring Thursday after 28 years with the US Postal Service as a clerk with the Santa Paula Post Office, a career he said put him in contact with many over the years.
The Post Office was constructed in 1934 as a “New Deal” project by the Work Progress Administration (WPA), the federal jobs program created to put Americans to work during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“I started my career right here” in the South Mill Street building, said Taubel, a resident of Fillmore. He first tested for the Post Office while in the Air Force, but once discharged found that working in the grocery business paid more.
Taubel also had a gardening business and he tried some other small businesses, but finally retested for the Postal Service. “They called,” and off he went to the 93060.
Taubel is happy this week marks not only his retirement, but a milestone that will make his leisure years easier: “I just made the last payment on my mobile home a week ago... and Wednesday, the day before I retire, my wife Sharron and I will have been married 42 years.”
Taubel has worked under various postmasters, including those temporarily filling the position; “a lot of interims,” he noted, including Postmaster Venida Ordonez, the last of Taubel’s bosses.
What Taubel said he liked about his job was “interacting with the people.... My wife and I do a lot of traveling and I would say about 80 percent of the time someone comes up and taps me on the shoulder,” a customer from Santa Paula.
He’s also enjoyed helping people with their postal problems and “having people say ‘I used to come in and see you with my grandparents,’ not always a great thing! The sad part is losing people; I dealt a lot with business people” whose deaths sadden Taubel.
He has seen many changes over the years, not all good: “Unfortunately the Post Office got caught up with a strictly business atmosphere” leading to “lots of cuts coming down” of employees that impact service.
“It’s been a good job financially,” providing Taubel and his wife travel. And now that he’s retiring there are more places outside the 93060 ZIP Code to explore: “We love Hawaii” and are embarking on a three-week visit, then next a cruise.
“We have a daughter in Florida we’ll visit. Will I come back to Santa Paula? Probably not,” said Taubel, except perhaps to visit longtime co-worker Hortensia Curiela, who stared working at the Santa Paula Post Office at about the same time. “She’s put up with me all this time... my wife says she feels sorry for her.”
“Oh, we’re going to miss him around here,” said Curiela, “but we expect he’ll be around here to inform us what we’re missing out on!”
Taubel said he wants to thank the community for their friendship and noted, “It feels strange to retire.... I worked for 47 years; it’s kind of neat and scary at the same time.”
