OH THE times they are a changing and we all have to change with them.
I well remember the A&P shows of my childhood and how excited my brothers and I were to get along to them.
Like most kids we were only interested in two or three things - mainly the sideshows, the hotdogs and candyfloss. (Later, as teenagers, we were interested in the girls. Sadly, they were never interested in us.)
Once we had done the dodgems, ridden the Ghost Train and scoffed enough additive-enhanced junk food to turn us a shade of purple, we had nothing left to do but to wander off to see the animals.
There used to be stalls and stalls of them. Sheep, cows, pigs, chickens (but never alpacas. Alpacas were unheard of back then) and lots of show ribbons on display.
These days, the traditional agricultural show has had to diversify where ever it is in New Zealand. Here in Hawke's Bay, we have a proud tradition of 147 years of the show and its organisers have had to think laterally to survive.
Now, there are booming wine awards, all manner of stalls hawking consumer goods and where there were once heifers there are now Tui girls.
And the crowds still come, maybe not as large as 20 or 30 years ago, but still a very important event for Hawke's Bay.
My wife and I were there today for People's Day. We were also there yesterday for a taste of the show before the crowd went wild.
And the wonderful thing to see is that it is still very much the agricultural and pastoral aspects that make the show special.
We saw the equestrian, kune kunes, ducks on display, miniature steers, alpacas (never in my day) and even a five-legged sheep ... which was a bit weird.
Best of all, was the pure entertainment of the live dog show - heading dogs craftily eyeing trios of testy sheep, directing them through gates and ramps before corralling them for points. Those dogs know how to survive in the modern world.
It was, we reckoned, about as agricultural as it gets and a pleasure to see.
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