A simple stroll around central Albury gave one walker a photographic surprise that brought back memories from nearly 60 years ago.
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Pam Clarke, 74, turned off Dean Street into Wilcox Street, near Albury Botanic Gardens, and came face to face with her younger self.
The corner National Broadband Network box had been decorated with pictures from the former Albury Floral Festival, a community highlight between 1951 and 1972.
There was a photo of Ms Clarke, then Miss Cross, sitting on a float in a festival parade from the 1960s, representing North Albury Football Club.
"I think I was 18 at the time, would you believe, that fuzzy bouffant hair," she laughed.
"I wasn't the queen or anything like that, I was a very minor attendant."
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The brainchild of Albury's longtime mayor Cleaver Bunton, the first floral festival marked the golden jubilee of Australian Federation.
Researcher Victoria Cooper, in a 2013 presentation to Albury and District Historical Society, said the festival usually began the Monday after Melbourne's Moomba Festival and included a queen competition, balls and dances, band recitals, art, photographic and garden competitions and a street fete.
Judging for the overall queen took place all week, as the young women were assessed through an interview and events like the Wednesday night ball.
The Saturday parade was the festival's grand finale, a display of elaborate floats with their queen candidates along with bands, children, clowns, marching girls and community groups.
Ms Clarke remembered sitting on the float as it passed through Albury.
"Those days they used to start near the Regent Theatre and go right down Dean Street," she said.
"And then we'd go up this precarious drive up around the bowl, come down into the bowl, opposite where Cleaver Bunton lived.
"Coming down that on a float, those days, in the dark, you took your life in your hands a bit."
Ms Clarke has been walking regularly since gyms closed because of the present COVID-19 restrictions, but had not known the footpath festival tribute existed.
Coincidentally, her partner's son had previously admired the various decorated NBN boxes dotted around Albury.
"We've been going around looking at them," Ms Clarke said.
"There's some really nice ones."
But none that startled her as much as the box on Wilcox Street.
"I walked around the corner and I nearly fell over," she said.
"I thought, 'Gee, that looks like our float' .... and it was our float!"
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