Bonnie Vinduska ends long career as postmaster
After 29 years, seven months, and seven days, Bonnie Vinduska of rural Marion will end her career with the U.S. Postal Service.
Friday is her last day as Florence postmaster. After that, a temporary officer in charge will oversee the office until further notice.
"I was really blessed to be a Postal Service employee," she said this past week. "The advantages outweighed any disadvantages, and the people of Cedar Point and Florence have meant so much to me."
Vinduska never imagined a five-hour-a-week job would turn into a 30-year career.
Born in Colorado Springs, she and her parents, the late Merle and Edna Mitchell, moved to Burns when Vinduska was 12. They wanted their children to have a rural upbringing, she said.
She spent two years studying at Kansas State Teachers College, but life took a different path when she took a summer job in the office of Dr. John Slifer.
"He was a great person, and I learned a lot from him," she said. "When the summer ended, I didn't want to go."
Slifer spoke with her parents. If they wanted their daughter to finish college, he would send her packing. Otherwise, he would keep her. Her folks gave their blessing, and she worked for him off and on for years.
The postal career started after she married and was living on a farm near Cedar Point. One day, Postmaster Lucille Pinkston said there was an opening for a part-time clerk but that she didn't know who she could get to fill the position.
"I just asked if she thought it was something I could do, and she said yes," Vinduska recalled.
Saturdays, Sundays
She worked three hours Saturdays. Since a mail truck still made a delivery on Sunday, she worked two hours then to prepare the mail for Monday morning. She filled in other hours as needed.
"Sometimes what I made barely covered the withholding and insurance, but I had insurance for the whole family, and that was important," Vinduska said.
She continued as a part-time clerk for more than 11 years. With a divorce imminent, she knew she would have to find a full-time job. But one daughter was still in high school, and she didn't want to uproot the family completely.
It was then that Pinkston announced her retirement. Vinduska was named postmaster.
"I realized that the Lord had provided me with what I needed," she said.
She enjoyed her duties there. Senior citizens occasionally asked her to pick up a loaf of bread or gallon of milk, if her duties took her to Florence.
And the Cottonwood River floods were legendary. There were times the mail couldn't get in or out. Sometimes it took the city's tractor and bucket to get Vinduska to the post office.
She ran the Cedar Point post office from 1984 to 1993. At that time, the Postal Service held a round of voluntary early retirements. A number of long-time postmasters retired, providing many openings.
Moving on
Unsure of the future of the Cedar Point office as the community continued to dwindle, Vinduska decided to apply for openings in Florence and Burns. She ended up having her choice.
"I chose Florence because it had city delivery so it would be more stable, and it was closer to my home, but I would have been happy either place," she said. Vinduska took the job in 1993. She left Cedar Point in 1995 to marry Ken Vinduska. They own a home and several acres at Marion County Lake.
Many changes have occurred through the years, though the small rural post offices have seen fewer obvious differences.
One of the most dramatic isn't directly obvious to the public: it deals with employee rules and regulations.
"They used to be set in stone, as far as who could have what job," Vinduska said. "There's a lot more flexibility now."
It's also harder keeping part-time help. When she started, she qualified for full benefits working just five hours a week. That option isn't available anymore, though part-time wages are higher than at many jobs, Vinduska said.
But she doesn't complain. The Postal Service gave her and other women jobs based on ability, not stereotypes. Also, her lack of a college degree has never been a hindrance in career advancement.
The post office had pressures, most of which came from the American notion that mail delivery is an inalienable right.
"Mail is a very personal thing to people," Vinduska said. "It's almost like you're a member of the family. But they let you know if you do something they don't like."
Anthrax attacks
The still-unsolved biological attacks on postal workers and government offices resulted in reams of warnings, training videos, even supplies of masks and gloves for distribution to employees as needed.
"You were cautious and vigilant, but then you put it out of your mind," Vinduska said. "Those are the people who deserve a pat on the back — all the thousands of postal workers who just kept coming to work every day."
She is proud of the many fellow employees with whom she's worked. Names fly rapidly — Frank Shumate, Lawrence Osgood, Carl Dawson Jr., Anita Elam — and her current carriers, Randy Savage and Ron Savage.
"I've known both of them practically since they were born, so they're always looking for ways to irritate me," Vinduska said with a laugh. "They keep calling me 'short-timer.'"
Retirement won't exactly equal relaxation. Both Ken and Bonnie love to garden, and they want the flexibility to visit their kids a bit more often.
"I want to do more sewing and I love to quilt — that's my passion," she said.
Her daughters are Kerry Keys, who lives in Hartford with husband Monte and teen-agers Maddie and Kasey, and Amy Taylor, who manages an advertising agency in Independence. She and her husband, Andy, live in Caney.
Vinduska is proud of the Postal Service.
"People complain about stamp increases, but we're still the cheapest service in the world by far," she said.
