Just came across this site, and reminded me of my childhood and how happy I always was to go to the shoe store, to buy a new pair of shoes.
Our shoe store had a fluoroscope and it was really neat to see the bones in your feet when you stuck your foot in it. Then suddenly it was gone.
Here's the story
Does anyone else remember these?

I remember using them every time my parents bought me shoes in the middle and late 50s. However, I don't think that has any relationship with the fact that I later grew three additional toes on my right foot. Besides, they give me great traction when running in mud and sand.

Like that's the only thing "different" about you, DG!
Makes me feel really ancient seeing things from my childhood winding up in a museum -- already.

That takes me back, too.These machines were in every proper shoe-shop when I was a child ! Using one was like a treat. Something else that has gone is the shallow fish tank in the fishmongers'.This was raised up to about the level of a low shop counter, set in the middle of tha shop, and you could reach in and touch the fish. (You had to make your own entertainment in those days ) Nowadays the nearest approach to that, other than lobster tanks in restaurants,is that stallholders in markets sell eels from shallow plastic dishes. When you order some the fishmonger cuts off the heads in front of you, so you know the eels are fresh !

I had no idea we had so many old farts here
Thanks for the link Kelley. I've never heard of this or even seen one...and I'm (gulp) middle aged!

Georgia, I always thought that middle age was 50 but how many of us will live to be 100?
So be kind to us old folks, okay?

"Georgia, I always thought that middle age was 50 but how many of us will live to be 100?"

Karrow passed that milestone so long ago that it is now called a milepebble, and Sailracer is very close. That's quite a bit for our small group.

Smart-assed young whippersnappers! Do any of you remember horse-drawn milk, bread, and fire-engines?

Horse-drawn milk floats (carts), yes, just but our milk came from the farm herd, raw (unpasteurised) so they must have been seen in the town. Also coal was delivered on a horse-drawn dray. I remember horse-drawn ploughs and other farm machinery.That's because there was a rationing of petroleum after WW2, so on our farm we kept horses for work.(In fact the first few harvests we had post WW2 were harvested by hand, gangs of men and boys being sent out with scythes ) Bread was delivered by someone on a bicycle. Fire-engines though were always mechanically powered.

Following up on Freds observations
When did you last see a steel milk churn/s at a railway station? or even on a farm (Mid 60s here) Now its loaded by tanker and conveyed by road
I too remember getting milk direct from a Dairy farmer in a can.
Can also remember getting loaves Hot from the Bakery (Big square blocks!) MMMM
And when did you last see meat sliced on a Berkel Hand slicer? (the one with the Large cast iron wheel) I last saw one in the mid 1970's www.berkelbiz.com/ Different to the ones illustrated here.
Some other things... Biscuits (cookies)in open Tin Boxes,Sunday Joints (in butchers), Fishmongers .Fish and Chips in Newspaper (Stopped by the health and safety mob )Also Chips fried in beef dripping .Now they do it in a synthetic lard mixture. Chips taste bland at best
And decent sized chips. Most are heading towards the MacDonalds French Fry size.In other words a drinking straw on a slim!

Kelleygirl, I've never seen one of those things before, but actually when I was a kid, we ordered our shoes from a Sears catalog. I still don't understand it's significance. If the xray showed some kind of deformity, would shoes have to be special-ordered.

Hi Honi! The way this worked was you'd try on a new pair of shoes and then you and one of your parents could look into the machine and see how much room your toes had and how well -- or not -- the shoe fit -- or not.

quoted by Bedstor, 'When did you last see a steel milk churn/s at a railway station? or even on a farm (Mid 60s here) ' My dad was a farmer and they hand-milked the cows right up till the late 1970's when he retired. There was a platform outside the farm gates where the churns used to be put for the tanker to pick up.

Talking of horse-drawn deliveries, Robinsons breweries in Stockport (5 miles from me) still deliver some of the barrels of beer by horse and cart. There are a lot of Robinsons pubs in the town centre and it is quicker to take the beer that way than by lorry. It's quite a sight, there are two shire horses , pulling the beer on the old fashioned dray!

quote:

Originally posted by Jenny Roberts:

Talking of horse-drawn deliveries, Robinsons breweries in Stockport (5 miles from me) still deliver some of the barrels of beer by horse and cart. There are a lot of Robinsons pubs in the town centre and it is quicker to take the beer that way than by lorry. It's quite a sight, there are two shire horses , pulling the beer on the old fashioned dray!

Young's brewery in Wandsworth, just South of the Thames opposite Chelsea and Fulham, still uses drays pulled by Shires. These are in regular use for local deliveries. There are twelve stabled at the back of the brewery site. The brewery is a 'real ale' brewery and probably the largest independent brewery in the South, and an old one too (founded 1581, in the days of the last Elizabeth R.)

quote:

Originally posted by Kelleygirl: and then you and one of your parents could look into the machine and see how much room your toes had and how well -- or not -- the shoe fit -- or not.

I guess the old method of "can you wiggle your toes" and pressing down on the tip of the shoe to see if there was space between your big toe and and the tip of the shoe didn't work, eh?

I had many a sore toe from the shoe salesman pushing down on my big toe! lol