Watch: Temperance Comes to Mission Wines — And Fails

It had been a typical Saturday at Mission Wines; some customers buying bottles, others partaking in an afternoon taste.

And then a woman wearing late 19th century garb hulked through the door carrying an ax, saying she feared business owner Christopher Meeske was in grave trouble. Claiming to have the law on her side, the would-be teetotaler threatened to return and smash every bottle in the place. 

Unphased, Meeske asked simply, "Can I buy you a drink?''

The skit was part of a heritage parade orchestrated by the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation to celebrate the city's 125th anniversary of its incorporation. Costumed men and women, followed by the Camp Carleton Cornet Band, walked west on Mission Saturday, from Gus's Barbecue to the South Pasadena Historical Museum where they performed an historical reenactment. 

Meeske knew it was the city's birthday, but he wasn't expecting women from the temperance movement to bust into his joint.

Nor did the women expect to like that syrah quite so much.

"Tomorrow,'' said the failed prohibition advocate, before downing a glass of red. 

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