The "Magic Machine" (Buying Shoes), 1940s, by Elaine Creed

From MemoryArchive

Who: Elaine Creed
What: Buying Shoes As A Child
When: Early 1940s
Where: Wichita, Kansas

I picked up the shoe and waved it at the salesperson - a common gesture at a shoe store. She finally got around to me and in a disinterested way asked if I needed help. Of course I needed help, otherwise why would I be waving a shoe. When I finally got through to her about what I wanted, her response was "What size do you need?" I don't know why but at that moment, I remembered that when I was a kid that question would never have come up. Salespeople were really shoe specialists when I was young. They were truly interested in getting you not only the right shoe but the right size as well. And the procedures they went through were unbelievable. Before you ever picked out out a shoe, you had to stand up and step on a metal foot sizer. It was a contraption in the shape of a foot but on the inside of each one (there was one for each foot) was a sliding lever that went against your big toe joint and had letters (A,B,C,etc) representing width and then lines up and down the sizer which represented length (6,7,8,etc). Whatever the "foot" read, that was your shoe size. At that point, you could pick out a pair of shoes. Then the fun began. The salesperson would bring the boxes and put both shoes on your feet - not just one as they seem to do today. Then you would walk over to a seemingly innocent machine which had an opening at the bottom. The opening was for your feet. Once your feet were placed correctly in the opening, the salesperson wold turn on the machine and like magic, you would see your feet inside each shoe. An "X-ray" so to speak. Obviously, the purpose was to see if your feet were properly aligned inside the shoe and the ball was properly aligned with the widest point of the the shoe. But the fun was seeing your feet when they were covered by shoes. (It was kind of like holding a flashlight against your hand and seeing your bones through your skin.) Amazingly, it was very clear - in black and white - but you could see all the details of the foot. It was almost unreal. Once the salesperson determined that you were in the correct size or not, the machine was turned off and you stepped away from the machine. Then you removed the shoes and either put on another pair or paid for the shoes and left the store. I don't remember when they stopped using the "magic machine" but I know that buying a pair of shoes was never as much fun or as exciting after that. Even the thrill of the latest fad in footware could not measure up to seeing your foot - bones and all - through a piece of leather. I guess you could say that the machine was a attempt at hi-tech shoe sizing or as my husband put it "see through sizing". But, like so many innovations it came and went with little if any fanfare. And there are probably only a handful who remember this wonderful machine.

As a Footnote to this story, I am a health care provider and today I saw a patient who told me the most startling outcome as a result of her curiosity and over use of this "wonderfull machine". She made repeated trips to her local shoe store to use the machine unsupervised and would hold the machine on for minutes at a time while gazing at the bones in her foot. Many years later the skin on her feet became irritated and looked as though it were " burned" her Dr said. She started having problems with the bones and would have continual infections that would not heal. She was tested for everything, and one day, while looking at her xrays, she mentioned to her Dr, her childhood use of the shoe sizing machine. He immediately said "that's it!" In 1993 her feet had to be amputated. Cause: Acute RADIATION BURNS!!!