See Your Toes, Win a Third Eye on Your Forehead

Fluoroscope in the National Museum of Nuclear Science

There’s been some talk lately about the machines at Buckner Ragsdale and the other downtown shoe stores that would let you see your toes inside your shoes.

[Chuck Blitstein jogged my memory about Gaylor’s in an earlier comment. That’s where we always went for my Buster Brown shoes.]

As I remembered them, you’d stand up on a platform, stick your feet through a couple of slots, push a button and look through a viewfinder at your toes while your gonads were exposed to massive jolts of X-ray radiation. That explains why Baby Boomers are sterile or why their kids have a third eyes in the middle of their foreheads.

Mother would never let me play on the Fluoroscope

Much to my disappointment, my mother would never let me play on the machine. My boys are equally disappointed that they don’t have that third eye, like all of their friends.

When Wife Lila and I took a mini-vacation to New Mexico to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, we stopped in at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque. There, just before you exited, was one of the see-your-toes machines.

And, no, it wasn’t turned on, darn it. My mother wasn’t around and this was my chance.

 

8 Replies to “See Your Toes, Win a Third Eye on Your Forehead”

  1. I used to buy my Bostonians and Florshiens at Buckner/Ragsdales lower level and they had one of these machines. At the time I thought it was cool to see my skeletal structure of my foot.

  2. I bought my KEDS a BR and my mom made sure the size was right by checking my toes in the machine. and like Keith I could see my bones!!!! Way cool!
    Thanks for finding one still on this earth…
    So…how was the fit on your shoes in New Mexico?

  3. So have you tried the Dr. Sholls machines cropping up in drug stores and drug departments? I don’t know if you can see your toes in it but the thing sure piques my interest!

  4. Only remember Mom & Dad having me put my feetsies in those slots once, downtown Cape, for a pair of Buster Browns. It was frightening at my young age…but I had no idea of the possible outcome & damage to my future reproductive years or off-spring…thanks once again for the memory jogging & humorous slant you put on them! Sorry you missed your chance, after 40 years of marriage & family raised…what harm could there be in it!

  5. Margi,

    I wouldn’t worry about the Dr. Sholls machines that I’ve seen. They just measure pressure. I was in a bike shop in Dallas where they had one that you would sit on to determine where your sit bones were to help select the right size saddle.

  6. Anyone seeking one of these machines for their rec room (great for Halloween parties with the grandkids), may contact the writer through Mr. Steinhoff.

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