Lorraine Robertson, known locally as Lorrie, is best known for her friendly face and warm welcome as the front desk supervisor at The St Georges Country Club.
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On Wednesday May 12, Lorraine will celebrate her 68th birthday as well as her 50th anniversary in the Hospitality Industry.
For the past 20 years Lorraine had worked at The Country Club and had been a supervisor there for several years.
At the age of 18, Lorraine started her hospitality career at the commercial hotel in Junee where she worked for a lady in her 70s.
"The day I started was railway pay day, the busiest day of the week, and all the staff walked out and left me on my own," she said.
"It was either I learned or I didn't. It was sink or swim."
Lorraine had many different jobs in the industry in places right across the country, travelling as far north as Darwin.
Her resume includes managing a Wagga pub, to working at famous footballer Arthur Summons' Tolland Hotel in Wagga, to her time at Hotel Gracelands in Parkes which was owned by Bob and Anne Steele, founders of the famous Elvis festival.
She even cooked at a truck stop in Cobar (where roo shooting was the norm).
"My husband at the time was a licensed shooter and I was as good a shot as he was. I had to do headshots or I'd spoil the pelt," she said.
BAR FIGHTS
She said one of the most noticeable changes was these days there were a lot less fights in pubs that needed to be broken up.
"I remember when I was managing the pub in Wagga that I got in bad fights up there because I never took a backward step from bullies. I was always pretty tough," she said.
"Plus I studied karate for a few years which helped a lot and I taught all my kids how to protect themselves as well."
FOOD EVOLUTION
When Lorraine joined the industry, many pubs still segregated women and children from men.
"Now they have huge beer gardens to get the families in," she said.
"Even the way they serve meals now has totally changed. You'd go to a pub and have a pub meal and it was always good. But it was like you'd have at home.
"It was just meat with three veggies. But now it's your meat and your sauce and your six or seven veggies on the one plate all set out beautifully."
JACK OF ALL TRADES
Being the first one staff called for first aid, she said there were a few times she helped save the life of a patron by performing CPR.
But on one occasion a couple of Christmases ago, she was unable to revive a local who she knew on a personal level.
"There's nothing anyone could have done because she had a massive coronary. But it sticks with you - anything like that," she said.
PERFECT FIT FOR A SELF CONFESSED EMPATH
Lorraine is recognised by just about everyone who comes into the club - to the point where, when she goes shopping, she sometimes adjusts how she looks to avoid always getting noticed.
She said she cherished her time in hospitality because she was a people person and she couldn't work in any other industry.
"I loved being around people and I couldn't be stuck away in an office which I had been a few times before I was 18," she said.
The self confessed empath said The Country Club had been one of her favourite places to work because of the friendships she had made and the empathetic community she served.
About a year ago the community rallied around the son of a worker at the club who had been diagnosed with Leukemia.
"We've only got to put a bucket up with someone's name on it to help them and we'll collect thousands in a day. When the crap hits the fan, the community sticks together," she said.
And she said she was grateful for the opportunity to host charity nights at the club, including a recent Barnardo's children's charity event where she got the chance to show off her singing abilities.
A BIG THANK YOU
She thanked her current husband Clive Robertson for being her stalwart, a person she wished she had met decades before she did.
And she wanted to thank The Country Club for supporting her recovery after her bad fall 12 years ago, an injury which left her with 15 per cent disability.
"I stretched every tendon in my body, loosened every tooth in my head and smashed my knees, ankles and pelvis when I fell flat on my face," she said.
She said she was lucky to work with her team of staff who she referred to as her work family.
"I'm supposed to be retiring this year but I don't know if I'm ready," she said.
