SALINAS, CA " Rosalie Pollard has called it a career after working 39 years for the Antle family. Ms. Pollard started her lengthy sales career in produce working at the former Bud Antle Inc., here.

Now 61, Ms. Pollard started her career in produce in 1966 working for Bud Antle as his receptionist and secretary. This continued for about 18 months until Mr. Antle asked her if she would like to move into sales.

Ms. Pollard recalls picking up the phones in those early days in the adjacent sales department as a way of helping out. At the time, there were few women in the produce industry handling sales. She had support from the former Mile High Fruit & Produce in Denver, she said, because they liked her style on the phone and because they, too, had one of the few women salespeople in the industry.

However, support in the industry was hard to come by, Ms. Pollard said.

?Most men would refuse to talk to me on the phone," Ms. Pollard said. "They?d say, "No, I need to talk to a man." They could die on hold for all I cared."

She retired from Tanimura & Antle Inc., formed in the early 1980s, at the end of December. Three years ago T&A reorganized, and Ms. Pollard, who then was a sales and product manager who handled leaf lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and broccoflower, shed her product management role in favor of solely handling sales. She retired as a sales service manager handling broccoli, cauliflower and broccoflower.

Ms. Pollard said that she would miss the family atmosphere at T&A and the fine treatment she received there. But she won?t miss the early hours, she said. Her weekdays involved waking at 4:30 a.m. for a 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift; she also worked every other Saturday. The fast-paced morning sales push typically was heaviest from 7 to 11. Diligence to her job meant handling phone calls at home at odd hours, she added.

?It's been years since I've slept more than three hours in a row," Ms. Pollard said.

Ms. Pollard noted that the produce industry has gotten less personal for salespeople like herself. Where everything was done on the phone in the distant past, now there are now fax machines and electronically placed orders. Much more prevalent now are contracts with prices locked in for the year, making the sales interaction less dynamic, she said.

?With orders over computer, you don?t have spontaneity left," Ms. Pollard said. "You don?t have the dialogue like you used to have."