As a pimply-faced pre-teen, I'd accompany Dad to his office on a Saturday afternoon and make my way to Little Jack Horner, the mecca of magic tricks.

Anybody else remember six-shot Lota on the shelf behind the counter? It was the adult novelties, though, that bewildered me with the creepiness of growing up. Who else remembers the Alarm Clock Candles, a shabbos candle wrapped with instructions to shove it up your(self), and lines indicating of how far to insert, depending on what time you wanted to wake up? Wonderful, poignant memories of this vortex known as Little Jack Horner.

NOTICE
No solution of any trick will be revealed until trick is paid for. Thank you.

I guess this is what he did for a living after the Bates Motel.

In 1967, at 13 years of age, my favorite items there were the fake dog poop which, since we had a dog, gave my grandmother fits and the stink bombs which could empty out a streetcar in about 15 seconds!

The haircut, the Oxford broadcloth button-down shirt, the V-neck sweater. That was like a uniform for guys his age until the Summer of Love changed everything.

There are a couple of boxes containing "Martian Magic Tricks" kits, part of the merchandising connected with the My Favorite Martian TV show which ended its run the year before this photo was made.

A magician feeds a dollar bill through one side of the rollers and a bill of a higher denomination would emerge on the other side.

I had been to this place once probably around the 1990. It was a small and quaint selling a variety of joke, magic and novelty items. Apparently this store closed around 2007. Boston had at least 2 more joke and novelty stores, one near the North End, not sure if there are any still around.

That Old-Red Eye ashtray, according to an eBay auction, burps.