SOMERTON MAN: A HANDY LITTLE SHOP

Almost Midway between The Victoria Hotel and the Railway Station in Adelaide lies Blyth Street. A smallish alleyway really but during the war years it housed amongst other businesses, a handy little shop known as 'The GuideThrift Depot'. People donated goods and clothing of all different kinds and volunteers at the shop would give the proceeds to various deserving causes. Note also that the article mentions that the Thrift Depot had a stall inside the gates of the Adelaide Hospital.

Eagle-eyed Clive found this particular article in the August 26th, 1944 edition of the Mail. It was, of course, the Rubaiyat mention that caught his eye.

What the ad provides us with is further confirmation that second-hand goods and clothing were available in Adelaide and no doubt elsewhere and that people, in this case, a US serviceman, dropped in and found just the book they were looking for. Sadly the book sounds to be of a different type to our Whitcomb and Tombs version but the point is that we don't know whether the book was new or second hand, we don't know from where it was purchased nor when. It stands to reason, therefore, that, if the book was second hand, were the indentations on its back already there when the Somerton Man may have acquired it?

The Guide Thrift Depot closed its doors in 1945 I believe.