On Friday our newsroom said goodbye to five longtime staffers.

Five longtime staffers I never thought would ever leave.

And yet, there they stood, decked in lei, on the stairs of our newsroom — where dozens of others have delivered farewell speeches — on their last day on the job:

A total of 180 years at The Advertiser — 221, if you count the 41 years of our beloved copy clerk Robert Cheng, who retired two weeks earlier.

It was surreal.

I've been at The Advertiser for just under nine years — nowhere near the decades they spent pounding on Royal typewriters and answering Touch-Tone phones.

Back then, reporters could smoke at their desks, drink beer in the conference room and throw phones across the city desk. (That happened at least once.)

So much has changed — and yet, so much has remained the same.

Laptops with high-speed Internet have replaced IBM Selectrics, and cell phones have unleashed reporters to the streets.

But our purpose is still the same: To tell stories that inform and inspire, to hold public officials and agencies accountable, to share what we learn with our readers.

It's often a tall order when you bring into the equation things like deadlines, crashing computers, unreliable cell-phone reception and sources who decide to take two-hour lunch breaks and never call back.

But as these retirees have proven: Great journalism is possible, even under the most challenging circumstances.

When bridges collapse, when earthquakes knock out the electricity, when traffic on the H-1 is at a standstill.

We have to get our job done. And readers shouldn't expect any less.

The newsroom was filled with well-wishers, from former co-workers to former Gov. Ben Cayetano.

Reporters and copy editors stopped typing, page designers left their pages, photographers put down their cameras. Some staffers even came in on their day off.

All to bid farewell to five people who have built and shaped the newsroom over the past 30 years.

"This is the end of an era," said attorney Jeff Portnoy.

The goodbyes were sad. But as one reporter said: "It'll be sadder on Tuesday."

It is.

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com. Read her daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.