When he first started in education 35 years ago, Paul Upshaw vowed he’d retire when he was 59.
“I’d seen too many people decide to retire, wait another year, and then another year, and the first thing you knew something had happened to them and they couldn’t enjoy retirement,” Upshaw said Thursday afternoon while taking a break from duties at Calvary United Methodist Church’s annual rummage sale.
Upshaw hit his retirement mark 10 years ago in some ways. In other ways he didn’t.
He was in education 25 years, the last 13 as elementary principal at Westphalia, and then spent 10 years as assistant manager at a local grocery and Burger King before punching his time card for the last time at age 59 in 2000.
Now, he will retire a second time Wednesday, after spending 10 years as custodian at Calvary. Wife Saundra will be with him when he hands over the church’s keys to the next custodian, Arvin Clemans.
Happenstance led the Upshaws to the church job.
“I’ve been a member since I was little,” he said, which made helping out natural.
“The church was hunting a custodian and we were in a meeting one night,” Upshaw recalled. “I thought, ‘Saundra and I could do that,’ and I said we’d be willing if we had only to report to the minister. Bill Mentzer jumped up and moved that we be hired.”
Custodial work at the church hasn’t been a full-time job, but a restrictive one.
“I can’t remember many Sundays when I wasn’t here to open up for services,” Upshaw said.
The freedom of retirement won’t mean the Upshaws will be any less faithful, but they may miss a few Sunday services.
They have 11 grandchildren scattered about the country and “eight of them are in sports,” he said. “We want to see them a lot more often.”
And to be honest, Upshaw said he wasn’t going to retire altogether.
“I’ll still be delivering drugs for Iola Pharmacy part time,” he said.
UPSHAW grew up in the area and met Saundra — maybe it would be better to say she met him — in eighth grade band at Iola Junior High School. “I remember him from then,” Saundra said.
Noted Paul, “I really don’t remember her in junior high.”
Saundra was born here but left when she was seven, after her father, Robert Anderson, came home from service in World War II.
“Mom died not long after I was born and Dad went into the service,” she said.
That left Saundra in the care of her grandparents, A.W. and Nora Anderson, who operated a neighborhood grocery at 502 N. Second.
Soon after her father returned, he married and took a job that had the family living elsewhere.
But, with local ties, Saundra made her way back to Iola, for a short time in junior high, and then again to attend junior college.
They married not long after.
THEIR CUSTODIAL work at the church has been more public service than occupation, which fits well into their lifestyle, particularly Saundra’s. She long has been involved in community theater and frequently goes to local nursing and care homes to visit residents and sing for them.
A project Paul started soon after he became custodian has paid off handsomely for the church.
Churches seldom have enough revenue to meet all physical needs. He saw an opportunity in an annual rummage sale, which not only would give members opportunities to divest themselves of surplus belongings, but also bring in cash for such things as parking lot resurfacing, a new roof, carpeting — and, with proceeds from a sale that concludes today, a storage shed for lawn and other equipment used to keep the church grounds up to snuff.
The sales have featured a wide variety of household goods and often have included furniture.
This most recent sale boasted estate items from two members.
“Our best sale, when we had a lot of furniture, raised about $7,000. On average we bring in about $3,000,” Upshaw said.
He and Saundra have been instrumental not only in starting the sales but also in making sure they click like clockwork.
“Don’t give us too much credit,” he said. “Every year we’ve had lots of good help, just like we have had in keeping the church up all year long.
“We probably couldn’t have a sale without Marjorie Mentzer. She’s our merchandiser. She knows how to price everything.”
THE SALES may wane without old P.U. at the helm, a nickname he mentioned that hearkened back to his youth.
“I got in a lot of fights over that nickname,” he said, remembering that when his mother finally learned why he came home with a few bruises she starting calling him Paul Ray.
But, said the mild-mannered Upshaw, “it doesn’t bother me anymore.”
