Former Ralphs employees still meeting up for lunch in the friendship aisle

On Tuesday, six women who once worked together for the Ralphs grocery store chain met at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Costa Mesa for a leisurely lunch.

It had been some time since they all punched in at the same workplace.

Decades, in fact.

But for the former colleagues gathering over pasta and buttered bread inside the noisy dining room that sunny, blustery afternoon, determining just how long ago their workplace travails were proved difficult.

Did she leave in ’80? Did she start in ’78?

It didn’t matter. When and how wasn’t a priority, not at this point in their lives, anyway.

Their moments now were about maintaining friendships, keeping up on the latest in each other’s lives and, of course, recounting old workplace war stories.

The six women met doing the same job: sales auditing for the Ralphs corporate offices in Compton.

It was laborious, painstaking work in what they remembered as dreary conditions. The auditing space was a windowless, characterless, warehouse-like cavern with rows of desks — the ladies described them as “cells” — that were partitioned off so co-workers couldn’t easily chat.

Sales auditing was relegated to women back then. Paper receipts from the stores came into corporate headquarters in bags. The auditors took the receipts, distributed them, organized them and compiled information.

Supervisors, mostly men, monitored the auditing army from nearby offices. Shifts were 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The scene was apparently humorless. They kept their heads down and made the best of it, muttering jokes under their breath, anything to lighten the mood. They considered it a repressive workplace.

But looking back, the women universally attribute the strength and longevity of their friendship to their time “in the trenches.”

Alice McCulloch did it for 19 years, longer than most of the six. She always liked math, so that helped.

“But there was no hanky panky as far as the numbers are concerned,” she says.

McCulloch grew up in Scotland. She met an American in Paris in 1956. They married, and he brought her to the United States the following year. Their union lasted four years. She never wed again.

Several of her friends attested to her being the joy of the auditing room during their “slumber parties,” karaoke outings and other get-togethers, which started around 1979.

This time, in Costa Mesa, McCulloch kept a quiet profile but was quick to smile. She couldn’t help but recall that, despite the tough environment, they were paid well.

People are fighting for a $15 minimum wage now, she says. But some 30 years ago, she was making $16. She was able to buy her little house in Long Beach on it.

The women were in the Teamsters union and evidently happier for it. They stayed because the pay was good, especially for the time.

Cheryl Calac was there circa 1972-78. She drove to the reunion from Palm Springs.

After Ralphs she worked for Ralph Lauren, training bookkeepers, and later in administration for a country club.

Dode Kennish of Maywood worked for Ralphs for 30 years, over two periods. She started in the late ’60s, did sales auditing and also worked at the Ralphs store at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles. She manned an area there that sold bus passes, money orders and the like.

Renda Ruiz of Mission Viejo worked for Ralphs from 1974 to 1986 — or sometime thereabouts. Now she’s in residential real estate and follows the career of her son, Rance, founder of the Rance’s Chicago Pizza chain, which started in Costa Mesa.

Jeanie Gomez spent 13 years there. Her former colleagues still recall with degrees of pride how her number-sleuthing helped uncover instances of employees who stole money.

Gomez, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, shrugs off the adulation. It was her job.

“You kept your head down and did your work,” Gomez says.

Gomez seems more proud of founding her family landscaping business, Horticultural Designs.

“We love it,” Gomez says. “We are our own boss, come and go when we please.”

Laraine Pipoly of Long Beach had her Ralphs stint from 1975 to 1983, or so she thinks.

“Too long,” she jokes.

She later founded a political consulting firm that hired petition signature gatherers — and, she says, always paid her people on time.

The retirees last met up five or six years ago. But each time they reunite, the group says it’s like time has never passed. They’re their old selves, laughing and loving one another.

“It’s like getting back to your roots,” Calac says. “Every now and then.”

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint