CONNECTION, tradition and a feeling of familiarity have kept people like Alison Day coming back to country shows for her entire life. Alison is pictured with a memory of the Beaudesert Show with her brother Philip in 1968.
ALISON Day is one of many people who simply love going to the show each year.
She has lost count of how many Beaudesert Shows she has been to but guesses maybe 45.
As for the Ekka (Royal Queensland Show), she has only ever missed it two times: 1964 when she was a newborn baby and 1987 when she had her second-year inspection as a teacher at Charleville.
In fact, Alison has been to the Ekka 59 times including one year when she stayed with relatives in Windsor and got to go twice.
Showgoers help keep show spirit alive
Alison, who turned 60 in July, is quick to point out that many people reading her story will have been to more shows than she has.
She is humble about her devotion to the Ekka and her local Beaudesert Show, which she has sometimes volunteered at over the years.
But in her lifetime of shows, Alison has learned the value the show movement carries in bringing people together and keeping traditions alive.
A special connection
Alison went to the Ekka a handful of times with her dad before he died in August 1970 when she was six years old.
On a few treasured occasions, the whole family went – her mum, dad and the four kids.
“This is where my love of the Ekka comes from. Our dad Bill ‘Whopper’ Day adored the Ekka, and we went every year,” she said.
“We would go on the second Thursday at the crack of the dawn, and we would stay to the end. We didn’t have a lot of money or anything, but it was a different Ekka then. There were treats, but it was about the animals and the ring and the things you saw, and it was just that we were together as a family and we had so few of those, really.”
Alison laughs at a favourite family story from 1964. She was rushed to the doctor as a newborn baby because it was feared a tick brought back from the Ekka had burrowed into her neck, but it turned out it was a piece of liquorice from an older sibling’s showbag.
Local show delights
The Beaudesert Show holds a special place in Alison’s heart, too.
“My grandfather and dad would be on the gate, and I have an image in my mind of dad smiling as we went through,” she said.
“That’s what local shows are, isn’t it? It’s volunteers who keep those things going, so I’ve done a few things – I worked with Mr and Mrs Jennings we used to do the horses for quite a few years, and they were really good days.
“What I really like about the Beaudesert Show is you see people you know, and you buy something from the different stalls to contribute to fundraising within the community and it’s that sense of home. I always say to people it’s a really great show and the show society have done amazing things.”
