I had the opportunity to sit down with five people who are retiring soon from Sears at Pearlridge Center after working there for 40 years. We may have lost the Ala Moana Center store, but Pearlridge, Kaneohe, Hilo and Kahului are still open.

To put this in perspective, in 1974, when the Pearlridge store opened, George Ariyoshi was running for governor. Frank Fasi was Honolulu mayor. Aku ruled the radio airwaves. Nixon resigned as president because of Watergate. The war in Vietnam was raging. Sugar production in Hawaii was just hitting its peak. Aloha Stadium was under construction. There were no desktop computers, cable TV, or home videocassette recorders.

Cassandra Ortogero-Pang told me she began at the Ala Moana Sears in 1969 and later moved to Pearlridge.

"I was hired to work at the candy department as Christmas help, but was brought back the following January. We cooked our own nuts and made fresh popcorn, which we sold for 17 cents a bag. We also made our own special caramel popcorn, a favorite of many.

"The candy would come in big boxes. In my first week there, the bottom of one box opened as I picked it up and malted milk balls went rolling everywhere. I thought I was going to be fired that instant. I was a wreck. My manager told me to pick them all up, dust them off, and put them back in the box!

"She did a good job of teaching us what was right and what was wrong — with that one exception. And it carried me through my life at Sears. When I came to work, I knew the only reason I was there was to take care of the people that came through the door.

"I was in candy for three years, then promoted to the paint department," Ortogero-Pang continued. "They were trying to put females into a male-dominated department.

"Sears recognized that men in the department were not going to help us and sent us to school on the mainland to learn about paint. When I came back, I knew the ins and outs of paint and equipment, and could sell items without asking the guys for help.

"If I sold 40 gallons of paint, I went to the stockroom, climbed the ladder, pulled the cases down all by myself. The guys wouldn’t help me because I sold it. I mixed it all and got it ready to go. I enjoyed that department.

"I’ve always done my very best for the Sears store, because of all the times the company has helped me in my life. This was a way I could give back to a company that has given me so much."

Nita Sagubo joined the Pearlridge store a month before it opened. She remembers the open warehouse feel it had, and that the first thing she did was mark off where the different departments would be.

She recalls the artist who made the three, huge metal koi sculptures that hang near the front of the store where the escalators are. "He connected them scale by scale," she recalls.

"The store is definitely haunted," Sagubo says. "There are spirits of a little girl, and a young man. I caught a glimpse of him once, in the stockroom in a blue shirt. Many have seen their hair, but never a face.

"The floor would be nice and clean, following after-hours polishing, but in the morning, there were mud footprints in several sizes from kids to adults running around playing. There’s a lot of spooky things like that.

"My fondest memories are of the staff. We hold each other up."

Stephanie Shimizu said the store manager they put on a pedestal was Benjamin Lane. "He would remember your name after just one meeting and would always recognize you walking around the store.

"Mr. Lane would give us little incentives in catalog sales, where I worked. He had a loud, distinguished voice. He came in and looked for me one day.

"Good morning ladies," he would say. "I’m looking for Stephanie, and there she is hiding in the corner."

"I’d say, ‘Good morning, Mr. Lane.’ He’d pull one of the rolling chairs up to me and he say, ‘For your outstanding service, you have earned my appreciation,’ and he’d have a check. It would be for less than $5, ($30 today), but the way he presented it, it was like a big deal. That check meant a lot to me."

Donna Cadiente met her husband, Stan, here. (Stan was a former quarterback at Farrington, the year they took the ILH championship in 1965).

"He was an employee but it took 14 years until we got together. I was getting older and thought I’d like to settle down. I knew he liked me, and so I thought, ‘Well, why not?’ We’ve been married 28 years.

"I got to meet the president’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. She came to buy a mattress. I told her I would not want her brother’s job. All the staff came over to take photos. That was the highlight of my Sears career.

"I saw a lot of personal growth in myself. I got to meet a lot of people. It opened me up."

John St. Sure started at the Waipahu Sears and came to Pearlridge in 1977. "I remember a bigwig came from the mainland. He dragged an empty chair into a meeting and told us: ‘This is for the customer.’ I thought it was a cliche, but that’s how seriously management looked at customer relations.

"They treated us like a whole family then. It’s not the same now. It’s more like in-laws. The managers organized things like picnics, bowling, softball and volleyball leagues. That’s how we got to know everybody. I joined just so I could meet fellow associates."

Mahalo to Cassandra Ortogero-Pang, Nita Sagubo, Stephanie Shimizu, Donna Cadiente, and John St. Sure for sharing their stories with me. Diane Barker and Steve Morikawa are also retiring after 40 years at Sears Pearlridge. I wish them all well in their future activities and thank them for serving the people of Hawaii so gracefully.

Bob Sigall, author of the Companies We Keep books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.