Probably the most unusual visit to a "gun shop" was back when I was about 12 or 13 in 1965... The Meier and Frank Store in the big shopping mall downtown Portland had a very upscale gun counter in one corner, right next to the pet store section of the store... I was lusting after some of the guns on the shelves- Purdys, Winchester 21's lined up, and several high end English shot guns. A guy walks up and asks to handle one of the beautiful shotguns and I watch from a few feet away as he swings and looks it over. He eventually asks the counter person- "$6,500?" and the guy answers yes... so, the customer pulls out a wad of cash and pays the guy while he puts it back in the factory box with all the accoutrements and he takes it home.. this was a time when $6500 was a lot of money- in fact it was the same price as a new AC Cobra or an upgraded Corvette at the time...
What was the most unusual about the visit, though was that right next to the gunshop was the pet store so I wandered over and looked at the animals for a while- which included a Lion cub, monkeys, and several other exotic species... I found out later my grade school buddy had a cousin had bought a lion cub there and raised it until it was several years old and treated it pretty much like a pet dog. I saw it once and it was a huge animal and afraid of people except for the owners...
