Easter show was 'pretty much religion'

At the Easter Show, the girls played the laughing clowns, and threw darts at balloons - but in the Jury family, the shooting gallery was for the boys. Photo / NZ Herald

At 7-years-old, Michael Jury was already an accomplished marksman.

His dad had given him an air rifle two or three years earlier, and father and son would sit in the back of their New Lynn quarter acre, taking shots at cans. "They made a good noise."

So when he lined up the cross hairs at Auckland's Easter Show in 1970, he knew something was amiss. "I remember knowing the sights were just a little bit out - probably deliberately."

Nonetheless, he came home with a stuffed toy he'd won - though he can't quite remember whether it was won on the shooting gallery or the laughing clowns.

The Easter Show was an annual favourite for Michael and his two older sisters.

But while Bronwyn and Susan dropped ping-pong balls in the mouths of the laughing clowns, and threw darts at balloons, it was Michael - and subsequently, their two younger brothers - who tried out the shooting gallery.

"It was a boy's thing," says Michael.

Michael, 48, now owns a Burger Fuel store in Henderson - following his parents into retail.

When he was a kid, they used to hang out after school at father Roly's jewellery store, where their mum Janet also worked.

"Even with five kids, she used to help in the jewellery shop," he says. "Dad would be watch-making, mum would be threading beads, piercing ears and working the counter."

So Easter - and the Easter Show - was a much-anticipated holiday for her as well.

The only catch was, Janet and Roly's interests were distinctly different from their children's.

"I didn't enjoy having to go through the display areas. I can remember lots of homewares. Crikey, I remember when they invented the famous plastic potato peeler," says Michael.

"K Road late night shopping every week, Easter Show every Easter, and summer holidays away on a boat. We had a daily, weekly and annual routine.

"We went every year - it was pretty much religion."