In days gone by Maitland Show was filled with crowds in their Sunday best.
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People came from far and wide to be part of the iconic event, which was a major event on the yearly calendar, and many entered to be part of it.
Ladies entered their needlework and cooking while men entered their farm produce and their animals.
But it was the attire they wore that has long-time show patrons Bill Atmore and Janice Blackwell thinking of the past.
They said men wore their best suit, a tie and shined their shoes while women put on their best dress, a hat, stockings and high heels and finished off their outfit with a handbag and short white gloves.
Most of them would attend every day of the show.
Mr Atmore remembers those days well. He experienced his first Maitland Show as a three-year-old in 1945 and last weekend celebrated his 70th show.
“Everybody was happy, the show was a celebration,” he said.
“Everyone used to dress up to come to the show, it wasn’t like it is now.”
Mr Atmore makes his way to the show these days to remember those good times.
He said the show lacked the grandeur of the past and in days gone by it had a heavier focus on the city’s agricultural precinct.
He praised show organisers for taking the event back to its agriculture roots this year with a paddock to plate theme.
He hoped the show would continue to build on its agriculture history, although he feared it would never be as grand as it was in the past.
Janice Blackwell’s experience with country shows stems even further back than Mr Atmore’s.
She has attended 80 country shows and taken many trips to the iconic Maitland Show.
Mrs Blackwall, who was born in 1936, also came to the show to reminisce what it used to be.
As she walked around her mind darted back to a time when farm produce was the highlight of the show and everybody came together to celebrate the event.
“I used to love everything about it but now I’m bitterly disappointed,” she said.
“There used to be so many pavilions filled with produce and there used to be so many cattle and pigs.
“There used to be a lot more of everything.”
Mrs Blackwall, nee Mead, has family ties to agriculture. Her family farmed land near Maitland.
She said the way crowds dressed to come to the show had also dramatically shifted, and she wasn’t sure why people didn’t want to dress up to go to it anymore.
“The men wore suits and ties, and the ladies wore high heels and gloves and stockings and put on their best dress,” she said.