By Laurie DuPaul 

Special Contributor

Roberta “Bert” Austin likes to make people smile.

If you were to glance at her resume, it would read that she has been employed by Consolidated Elementary School in Kennebunkport as a lunch lady for 11 years and a waitress at the Wayfarer Restaurant in Cape Porpoise for 21 years. What it would not tell you, is that Austin brings smiles to most people that she meets.

“I always think, ‘don’t be so serious,” Austin said as she talks about her fried egg earrings.

“My friend Kristen – Krissy – Preble came up to me one day and said ‘Oh, Bertie, look what I found for you’ and she showed me these fried egg earrings. When she left I thought, oh my, I have never seen anything like this in my life. They looked like sunny side up eggs and they were quite big. I wore them and they were heavy. It took me a while to figure out why, when I went to take someone’s order at the Wayfarer, that they would look up at me and laugh. Then I realized I had the earrings on. I am known as the lady with the fried egg earrings. If I forget them, I have to go home and get them. If I lost them, I don’t know what I would do since I have never seen another pair,” Austin said.

Austin walks proudly in Phyllis Cluff’s footsteps, her grandmother who turned 93 this week, and served as lunch lady for years at Consolidated School. 

“There is no typical attire that I wear when I serve lunch. I wear different colored socks and normally have two different colored sneakers but at the moment, unfortunately, they are matching. I wear bright pants, a fuzzy colored hat, or a bandana so I look like Aunt Jemina. Today I had on a chef’s hat. The kids love it. One kid started coming to school with two different colored socks,” Austin said.

Although Austin loves to bring a smile to people’s faces, on Memorial Day she honors veterans and her great grandmother. 

“I remember my great grandmother, Roberta Redman, sold poppies outside of Bradbury’s store in Cape Porpoise dressed proudly in her auxiliary uniform,” Austin said. 

On Memorial Day, Austin wears her red cap with an American flag, a red star earring in one ear and a flag in the other, and a blue vest with large white stars as she accepts donations for the poppies in downtown Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise. She began when her grandmother would receive a handful of poppies and asked Austin to help collect donations for the poppies. In later years, Austin would have her son, Michael, join her. 

“After receiving a donation, I would say thank you so much. I am collecting in memory of my great grandmother,” Austin said. 

Each year the American Legion Auxiliary volunteers distribute hand-made red poppies to the public on Memorial Day in Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise. The poppies are assembled by disabled veterans across the United States that receive a small stipend. The proceeds collected from the poppies are returned to the veterans.

“One man came up to me at the parade and said, ‘Oh my, I found someone that sells poppies. I didn’t think they sold poppies anymore.’ Working in the food business all my life, the patrons have always been generous when donating. One year, I remember collecting $150 for 75 poppies.” Austin said. 

The ladies of the auxiliary that accept donations each year remember with fondness the history of the poppy and the veterans that continue to assemble them year after year. During World War I, a Colonel John McRae, from the Canadian Army, wrote the famous poem “In Flanders Fields.” 

With row upon row of fallen soldiers, McRae described the brave soldiers that now rested with poppies covering their graves. Flanders Fields are found in Belgium, where 368 American servicemen are buried and 43 missing American servicemen are remembered. Two women, Anna E. Guerin in France and Moina Michael of the United States began selling handmade poppies to benefit those that were destitute from the war. Later, Michael worked with the Veterans of Foreign Wars to have the poppy become a symbol of remembrance for the war. 

As Memorial Day approaches, Austin reminisces, “In my life I have truly enjoyed being in the restaurant business. I feel it is important that you make eye contact and say ‘hi.’ You might be the only person that acknowledges that person that particular day. If I don’t get a smile, that’s OK. My hope is that someday when children think back on their elementary school years, it will bring a smile when they remember the lunch lady with the mismatched socks,” Austin said. 

Austin doesn’t remember how dressing eccentric began, but it makes both children and adults smile. She is very proud of her son, Michael, who is now a senior. He is no longer the little boy that stood by her side in the Memorial Day parade. Austin will be in Cape Porpoise Monday honoring her great grandmother as she accepts donations to make a difference in a veteran’s life.