Out-going North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association
secretary Barbara Watt (rear) at her last show on Saturday
with replacement Diana Gokalp. Photo by David Bruce.
It was a show-stopper for Barbara Watt in Oamaru on
Saturday.
After 20 years as North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral
Association secretary, she chose the landmark 150th show this
year as her last.
''You get 16 years for murder - and time off for good
behaviour,'' she quipped about her 20 years organising shows.
Mrs Watt, no stranger to shows both as an exhibitor and
through her father Arthur Mann, who was on committees,
president, treasurer and a long-time supporter, applied for
the job after former secretary Noeline Darling stepped down.
She was not sure what the job entailed, was appointed from
April 1993 and ran her first show without a hitch in November
that year.
''I was green and didn't know what it entailed. The second
show was the most scary one, because I then knew what was
involved,'' she said.
''I still get butterflies and worry whether it is going to
come off.''
The job is two days a week, for most of the year. But from
mid-January it is ''24 hours a day, also most Saturdays and
Sundays and very little sleep'', she said.
Mrs Watt deliberately chose the 150th show as her last, which
also coincided with reaching the retirement age of 65 years
this year.
She plans to get more involved in her crafts, particularly
felting and spinning, and pursue her love of floral art with
a trip to the Ellersie flower show. She will also continue as
a show exhibitor, maintaining an involvement since she was
about 6 years old.
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