2013 Royal Adelaide Show | Seeking Susan ~ Meeting Marie ~ Finding Family

The “Mad Mouse” at the Royal Adelaide Show – courtesy of Wikipedia

It’s SHOW TIME here in South Australia, with lots of fun, spills and laughter as the 2013 Royal Adelaide Show kicks on… What a surprise it was to discover, thanks to TERRIFIC TROVE, that it was also ShowTime, here in Adelaide, exactly 100 years ago. Hope you enjoy my discoveries as much as I did.

On the very first page it’s clear that, in 1913, the “Royal Adelaide Show” was the perfect opportunity for retailers to seek the patronage of the many country folk flocking to the City. John Martin’s, the iconic Adelaide department store affectionately known as “Johnnies”, paved the way with this full column advertisement on Page 1.

Page 2 offers a raft of Amusements to take in, interesting “Funerals” also get a mention under the Amusements.

On that same page we see advertised some of the events Show.

Flipping over to page 5, I was most interested to read that the ladies could stock up on their Corsets…

… whilst their hubbies could pop over to “Holden and Frost” to purchase a replacement for that old and tattered “buggy hood”. Yep, that “Holden” is the original South Australian Company which grew to become “Holden GM” and is now threatened with closure, resulting in the loss of jobs for many thousands of hardworking, loyal employees in the Northern suburbs…but I digress 😳

Whilst all this “show time” activity was going on, I was most pleased to see that our “pollies” were hard at work in the South Australian Parliament… and noted that there was one of those familiar “land grabs” to take some of Colonel William Light‘s planned” parklands” for other purposes. 100 years later, I can say that “the powers that be” were successful in eating away at our “lungs of the city” and the “Police Barracks” were indeed built there.

On page 9 we see three “ideal homes” advertised for sale and the next three pages are chocka full of all the other opportunities “our country cousins” have to purchase homes in suburbia.

On page 12 there are more welcomes…

If I fancy one of those “new fangled” music makers I can go to Allans…

and popping into the “Quality Tailors” for a guaranteed 3 Guinea (3 pounds and three shillings, in the old currency) suit might be well worth checking out.

Whilst I’m in that area maybe a trip to get my teeth checked would be the way to go… Maybe I’ll get them all pulled out and be done with it?… Joseph Blitz says, on page 19, that he can provide me with “the best set of teeth in the world“. mmmhhh… ?

Maybe I should get a second opinion and check out this other dentist bloke…

Oh look!!! … I missed that back there on Page 23. Must get some photos of the kiddies. Not sure if I’ll have time to make it to the dentist this year.

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Ooopsie.. not quite sure what happened there readers. Seems that part way through someone jumped in and I started “channelling” them. No worries…

Thanks TROVE… I love you.

Many thanks also to Amy Houston, of Branches, Leaves & Pollen, for initiating the TROVE TUESDAY Theme. Please click HERE to visit Amy’s Blog and HERE to read the contributions of others.

Incidentally, apart from the Amusements page and the Advertiser Banner… all pictures are exactly the same size, as published, in The Advertiser of 10 September 1913.