DOLLINS SHOE STORE X-RAYed ME

Everyone who lived in Mt. Vernon in the 1950's knew Dollins Shoe Store just off the square in downtown Mt. Vernon. At that time, downtown was thriving with The Mammoth, Walkers', two theatres, two or three drugstores with restaurants, three jewelry stores, the Susan Shop, Musgroves, the Sub, Murphy's, Woolworths', Ben Franklin, a couple of bars, a package liquor store, a sporting goods store, a hobby shop, three department stores, a pool hall, and only one bank.

It was a cool downtown that included lawyers' offices, dentists, a foot doctor and general pract, and, of course, a county court house displaying a cannon on the southeast side. But Dollins was the coolest, challenged only by the elevators in the John B. Rogers' Building and King City Federal and Loan. The latter didn't even have an elevator operator so you could ride up three flights all morning before someone ran you off.

Most of the time, shopping wasn't all that looked forward to by young guys in the town. Maybe to buy a bike at Western Auto, just off the square proper or a new baseball mitt, but those happened so infrequently that they don't count. But every boy had to have new shoes. And Dollins carried Buster Brown. Buster wasn't all that great, nor was his dog, Spike, but the shoes were ok. You got a golden egg, plastic and easily broken after a day or two, but you got to see your feet in the x-ray machine. Now that was fun.

You stuck your feet, sans shoes but socks were allowed, into the machine and there they were. You could wiggle your toes. You could stand still and get an exact size reading. You could shove your feet in that slot all day if you wanted to. And we did. Well, maybe not all day, but a bunch of times.

No one realized the harm in radiation that our little feet were getting. I never heard anyone voice any concern over the amount of rads we were getting. We just thought it cool to look at our feet like that. It was like looking at your own skeleton.

Dollins went out of business before anyone knew the danger. Before any lawsuits could be drawn up. And the funny thing is, no other business has ever been successful at all from that location. It pretty much remains an eyesore to the downtown area today. And when you drive by late at night and look closely at the floor, you can detect a low green light shining there in the night.

I made the last part up.