Window Shopping

Thinking about going downtown triggered another memory.

Hanging out at the mall is not a new idea!

My Mom used to take me with her to downtown SA when she went "window shopping". I believe we took the bus downtown (sometimes we drove our 1940 Chevrolet). She would spend what seemed to me (at age 10 or so) HOURS walking from store to store to look at things. I wasn't sure what, but I assume clothing and household things.

One of the highlights for me was Joske's Department store. It was located across a side street from the Alamo. (We never went to see the Alamo then. It was just an old mission building only history buffs cared much about. I didn't see the inside until my elementary class went there on a field trip -- probably around 5th grade.)

I liked going to Joske's because they had a great toy department. That's where I bought my Stallion 45 Six Shooter cap gun, with removable cartridges, with money I had saved up from doing chores. (Probably with a subsidy from my Mom...)

I had to go to Joske's buy the boxes of little individual round caps to load the cartridges. They were kind of expensive, so I learned to use regular roll caps and tear them into small enough pieces to fit down in the shell of the cartridge. Eventually, it was more trouble than it was worth to reload the caps, so I just made explosive noises with my voice when I played cowboys and Indians with my friends. With caps, the Stallion 45 was good for only six shots. With self-made noises, it never ran out…a definite advantage when you were shooting it out with the Outlaw from next door or the imaginary Indians circling around you on their ponies.

http://www.nicholscapguns.com/45pasadena.htm

Cap guns then were kind of like light sabers are today.