Dottie Webber believes her job at J.B. White was so cool that she's still wearing the T-shirts 11 years after retiring from the department store.

The 81-year-old has the photos, newspaper clippings and pins to remind her of the good old days. She brings them with her to lunch with other former J.B. White employees, a monthly gathering that has been taking place for 20 years.

"I loved working there. We all loved each other. It was a nice atmosphere and a family store. We always had good buys and sales and fun times together," Ms. Webber said.

Employees got special days off, even birthdays. They also got 25 percent off their purchases and received prizes for being top sellers, said Antonia Kaiser, a 22-year employee.

Most of the old employees at the luncheon started their careers in the downtown store and then moved to the others.

"I think White's was the sweetest, kindest, most lovable store, and everybody who worked there felt that way. It was a beautiful (downtown) store, classic," said Shirley Edwins, a decorating consultant who worked at the company for 38 years.

The escalator only went to the second floor, and a woman named Daisy operated the elevator to the top two floors in the four-level downtown building, Ms. Kaiser recalled.

"When you walked, the floors creaked because the building was so old," she said.

The White's Building has since been converted into condominiums with commercial space on the first floor.

Ms. Kaiser, who started working in the linen department downtown, said that Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength was the store manager and interviewed her for the job.

"I loved every minute of it. It was a big family, that's all it was, really," Ms. Kaiser said.

Al Ciccarello loved his job so much that when he retired he asked for his old job back six months later. In all, he worked for the department store chain for 36 years. He praised the company's profit-sharing plan, saying it was the reason he was able to retire. He said the owners "were good people to work for."

Wendell Moore, who worked for 31 years as display manager and special events manager for the Southeast, agrees that J.B. White was good to its employees. He was drafted into the Army for a tour of duty in Vietnam six months after he started working there.

"When I came back, they gave me back the job that I was already on, plus whatever raises I would have gotten during the time I was gone. I couldn't believe that because a lot of the guys coming home with me had trouble getting jobs back," Mr. Moore said. "I loved it. It was the best job I ever had."

Keil Alderson, who was the advertising manager at J.B. White, agrees the store's management made working there worthwhile. When Mercantile transferred him to Augusta in 1962, the advertising department had three employees. When he retired, it had grown to 16.

"It was because they were so good to all of us, that we put everything into it that we could," he said.