Kerry is the only original employee still working at Big W Green Hills, 40 years after the store flung open its doors.

It was a sea of green as more than 1000 shoppers queued and waited eagerly for doors to open to take advantage of opening specials.

Men and women wearing green were taking part in local radio station 2NX’s Big W opening promotion for free dinner tickets.

Those were the good old days and Kerry remembers them fondly.

She transferred to Green Hills from Woolworths at Singleton.

“I’ve been at Big W Green Hills since the beginning,” she said.

“I started in the cash office and I have been there ever since.”

“When Big W opened it was a big deal. It was the first big shopping centre we had up this way. There wasn’t much here in 1977,” Kerry said. 

At the time the Green Hills site was an open centre with a modest mix of small retailers.

Kerry has seen massive changes to the centre over the years, the biggest underway now with Stockland’s $414 expansion.

“I’ve seen it go from Thursday night and Saturday morning trade to being open extended hours seven days a week. But I never imagined that it would be as big as what it is going to be next year. The expansion is what this centre needs and it will keep money in the town.”

With no plans to retire, Kerry is looking forward to catching up with old work buddies at Big W’s 40^th reunion which will be held at The Bradford Hotel, Rutherford on Saturday, November 11 from 3pm. Anyone interested in attending should contact Kerry or Wendy Baxter on 40156300.

So what else happened in Maitland in November 1977? Dragon played at Maitland RSL as part of their Get That Jive Tour, the double header screening at East Maitland’s Chelsea Theatre was The Deep and The Sexy Saga of Naughty Nell and Big Dick, S and W Miller advertised washing machines for $489 and DEK Autos had the latest Datsun 200B on sale for $5288.