How times have changed. In 2012, the bathing suits worn by contestants in the Miss America pageant can be packed in a thimble when the competition is over. But that was not the case when Bebe Shopp Waring won the crown in 1948. Appearing at the Gloucester Stage Company’s spring gala Friday at Bass Rocks Golf Club, Waring brought the actual black-and-white suit that she wore in the pageant. It was nice, yes, but you wouldn’t see many like it on a steamy Saturday at Wingaersheek Beach. Waring was joined at the gala by two other Miss Americas: Lee Meriwether, who won in 1955, and Susan Powell, who took the title in 1981. Not just pretty faces, the three women danced and sang for the crowd, which included actress Lindsay Crouse, who will star this summer in the Gloucester company’s production of “Round and Round the Garden.”