The face of suburbia is constantly evolving, but in Port Orchard, two things have stayed the same for going on 42 years.

South Park Pharmacy has been serving residents.

And owner Ken Paskett still loves his job.

“I could retire, but I thoroughly enjoy what I’m doing,” said Paskett, 69. “I’ve never been disappointed about coming to work.”

That work started on Sept. 24, 1968, in a 5,000-square-foot building on Village Lane, and expanded when space opened. In 1979, when Thriftway (now QFC) expanded, Paskett moved over a little more, bringing the pharmacy to its current size of 8,400-square feet.

Now, South Park, which is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, is managed by Jeff Paskett, one of his four sons.

It’s not just a pharmacy, though. Two years after opening, Paskett added a postal substation to the building — a process that involved getting more than 2,000 signatures on a petition — and he says that between the two, he’s doesn’t have much free time.

“It’s a draw,” he said of the substation’s customers. “Hopefully, they come back and buy a bottle of aspirin.”

Paskett said that while he’s smaller than the average pharmacy these days, they definitely have some things in common.

“Insurance companies dictate so many of the things we do and can’t do,” he said. “You can do a great job and help someone, but the insurance company can come in and say to get medicine from this insurance company, you have to go through mail order.

“They just take it right out of your hands.”

Regardless, he said, the people of Port Orchard are “more than customers.”

“A lot of them are friends and we know them by sight,” he said. “I’ve helped parents, kids and grandkids. It’s fun. That’s why I keep going.”

Paskett, who graduated from the University of Washington in 1963, got his pharmaceutical start in Gig Harbor, and then put his knowledge into the Port Orchard store.

“Then I bought into it,” he said. “It was sweat equity.”

He said the biggest change of his time in the business has been going from doing things with a typewriter, pen and ink to using a computer, and the ever-changing cash flow.

“At one time, if you did 25 percent of your business through insurance, that would be good,” he said. “Now if you do 7 percent of cash sales, that’s huge.”

And modern technology has definitely had an impact.

Paskett said doctors once told him to not tell patients about medicine.

“You don’t need to know what it’s for, just take it,” he recounted. “Now, everyone knows with the Internet. You want everyone to know what’s going on.”