In 1948, I was six years old and spent the summer with my grandmother, Olga Garske, in Webster, North Dakota. Webster is 12 miles north of Devils Lake, so we would go to Devils Lake for grocery shopping on Saturday. The 4th of July was coming up and Shark’s Men’s Store had a set of gold Roy Rogers cap guns laid out in the window. It had a fancy tooled leather belt with silver plastic bullets and silver engraved metal holsters. The price was $49.95.
There was no way my Granny could afford those wonderful guns for me, but every Saturday I’d make her walk by so I could look at those guns. One day they were gone and I knew that some rich kid was wearing my gold Roy Rogers cap guns. She ended up spending $6 for a good cap gun for me and I was satisfied.
Twenty-five years ago I met a man who owned an antique shop in Tombstone, Arizona, with a great selection of old cap guns. I bought an 1880 J.C. Stevens, double barrel cap gun from him. It’s been authenticated, still works and is on display in a shadow box frame on my office wall.
I mentioned my gold Roy Rogers cap guns and he said he’d look around for them. I got a call in a couple weeks. He’d found my cap guns, silver holsters and all, in pristine condition. How much? $1,200.00!
I guess some rich kid’s got my gold Roy Rogers cap guns again.
Mike Thompson has moved on from the Lake Region, he now lives in Texas and has many more stories he may share with us in the future, he has been a successful author, screen writer, and actor through the years. We are always looking for stories about people who lived here years ago and where their lives have taken them.Send your submissions to loleson@cmpapers.com for consideration.
