I just remembered this and got out of bed to write it!
I grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks", lower-middle class between (what was then) two rich towns. (one of them has since declined). Between the age of 16 and 23, I played in bands that included a couple of guys from the well-to-do towns. Basically, I can say I grew up with them.
I had never noticed class before until I stated mingling socially with these dudes and their families (and friends). You know what they reminded me of? The Kennedys! Blonde Kennedys! To be honest, I couldn't believe how many of these people thought (not my bandmates, per se, but some of their friends & family members)- they were very concerned with their bloodline and breeding, and were uptight about intermarrying with other races and - as I found out - the lower classes! Once I was flat-out warned off a girl, with the implication that I wasn't good enough for her; I got the vibe other times, usually when dealing with their fathers, that I was somehow less.
That very well may have been true....but if it was, it would be because of my inner character, not because of where I was from! well, whatever, I showed them all in the long run, but that's another story.
There was one girl in this circle, the sister of one of the "Kennedys", and she'd come to all our shows and hang out in rehearsals. She was devastatingly beautiful, and very cool. Total blue blood. Long dark blonde hair, face of an angel, super pretty, always so warm and smiley, very cool, very fun, loved music and knew a lot about it (which is always a plus!), loved having a good time, smoking a joint, having a beer, totally feminine and yet one of the guys at the same time, everyone fell in love with her).
She didn't look anything like Edie Sedgwick, but she had some of that Edie spirit in her (sans amphetamine addiction!).
Gorgeous girl, cool girl - I had just never thought of her in any other way but friendly because 1.) I was by now hyper- aware of this class difference (only among these people! not at the rich college I went to, not when I moved into the city. But I could never shake it with these people from the cusp of my youth.) 2.) Like I said, she was the sister of a friend, and it felt weird. and 3.) To be honest, I thought she was just out of my league, plain and simple. She was gorgeous.
And so instead, we were party friends! We got along like a house on fire! She'd always sit by my drums when we'd rehearse. We'd have great conversation, she was always with us when we'd go outside to smoke a joint, we were always laughing together and animated talking and high energy. And this went on for years, as we went from our high school days to our early 20s.
One night we were in their house, in their kitchen, a bunch of us talking, and me and her were talking off to the side, just the two of us. She looked beautiful, and.... I don't think we were flirting, we had never flirted......we just had a high energy rapport. My memory of us is always standing, smiling and bopping around, high energy, talking excitedly about music, usually.
So what made me do this? We're talking and I notice she's kicked off her shoes and she's wearing pink socks. Without even thinking - and yet totally setting up a situation for what you know and I know I was-a-gonna do - I look down, point down and say "Like your socks". (no, I'm not a "sock" guy)
She lights up, "You like them?" and extends her leg, and her foot, out to me, so that we could admire it together, lol. Well....I immediately just reached down, scooped open my fingers and planted a four-finger flurry of tickles right in the center of her sole.
The giggle came at immediate contact, a gorgeous titter of giggling as she pulled back her foot (and body) away from me, laughing and smiling, knowing she had "been got". And in that flicker of a moment.........in her eyes......the flirt was on.
Feeling like I had just accomplished something big, like crack Fermat's theorum, or write & record Sgt. Pepper, I felt like a million bucks, I felt like I had just tickled a celebrity or something, I felt like I had just tickled Marilyn Monroe. I had tickled the unattainable, the forbidden one, I'd tickled the rich man's daughter.
And I was emboldened! From then on, it was all upperbody. Pokes, gooses, tickling her if she hugged me....I never trapped her and gave her an all out tickling, that was not the scene, but I got plenty of gorgeous laughter from her because she was most definitely highly ticklish, the type who kept laughing, laughing at the sensation but also just that she had been "got" as if just the idea of being tickled tickled her. I can barely imagine what it would be like to REALLY get her because the laughter would always come effortlessly and melodically. One touch and you'd get a lot of reaction. She never fought it, and one finger was all it took to put her on the defensive. I wish I could remember more specific moments rather than just flashes, but I know that after she got her foot tickled, the whole nature of our rapport changed.
One day my friend - her brother - said to me, "I was with my sister yesterday and she said 'You know who I really like? You're never going to believe it!'" And she said the name of yours truly.
Ah foolish youth! I couldn't believe my ears and I just blurted out, "Rrrrrreeeeally? What did she say? What did she say?" I was like.....give me every detail! What a dope! It just caught me so off guard! I was practically panting and drooling. Yuk. He immediately caught my vibe - and put the k'bosh on the whole thing. It was his sister after all!
But who cares. My ego inflated and my confidence with the opposite sex went way up. But the real takeaway was this: she only saw me that way once I tickled her, once I showed her I wasn't afraid of touching her, touching her to make her laugh, touching that spot. It was always me just touching a spot, always the right spot, and she was sooooo ticklish..... just like a poor little rich girl, getting tickled by the lower classes.
Soon after, I stopped playing music with those guys and moved permanently in to the city and never saw her again.
And what happened to her? She ended up marrying a guy who would beat her up on a regular basis. So much for coming from a "good" family. Pffft.
I grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks", lower-middle class between (what was then) two rich towns. (one of them has since declined). Between the age of 16 and 23, I played in bands that included a couple of guys from the well-to-do towns. Basically, I can say I grew up with them.
I had never noticed class before until I stated mingling socially with these dudes and their families (and friends). You know what they reminded me of? The Kennedys! Blonde Kennedys! To be honest, I couldn't believe how many of these people thought (not my bandmates, per se, but some of their friends & family members)- they were very concerned with their bloodline and breeding, and were uptight about intermarrying with other races and - as I found out - the lower classes! Once I was flat-out warned off a girl, with the implication that I wasn't good enough for her; I got the vibe other times, usually when dealing with their fathers, that I was somehow less.
That very well may have been true....but if it was, it would be because of my inner character, not because of where I was from! well, whatever, I showed them all in the long run, but that's another story.
There was one girl in this circle, the sister of one of the "Kennedys", and she'd come to all our shows and hang out in rehearsals. She was devastatingly beautiful, and very cool. Total blue blood. Long dark blonde hair, face of an angel, super pretty, always so warm and smiley, very cool, very fun, loved music and knew a lot about it (which is always a plus!), loved having a good time, smoking a joint, having a beer, totally feminine and yet one of the guys at the same time, everyone fell in love with her).
She didn't look anything like Edie Sedgwick, but she had some of that Edie spirit in her (sans amphetamine addiction!).
Gorgeous girl, cool girl - I had just never thought of her in any other way but friendly because 1.) I was by now hyper- aware of this class difference (only among these people! not at the rich college I went to, not when I moved into the city. But I could never shake it with these people from the cusp of my youth.) 2.) Like I said, she was the sister of a friend, and it felt weird. and 3.) To be honest, I thought she was just out of my league, plain and simple. She was gorgeous.
And so instead, we were party friends! We got along like a house on fire! She'd always sit by my drums when we'd rehearse. We'd have great conversation, she was always with us when we'd go outside to smoke a joint, we were always laughing together and animated talking and high energy. And this went on for years, as we went from our high school days to our early 20s.
One night we were in their house, in their kitchen, a bunch of us talking, and me and her were talking off to the side, just the two of us. She looked beautiful, and.... I don't think we were flirting, we had never flirted......we just had a high energy rapport. My memory of us is always standing, smiling and bopping around, high energy, talking excitedly about music, usually.
So what made me do this? We're talking and I notice she's kicked off her shoes and she's wearing pink socks. Without even thinking - and yet totally setting up a situation for what you know and I know I was-a-gonna do - I look down, point down and say "Like your socks". (no, I'm not a "sock" guy)
She lights up, "You like them?" and extends her leg, and her foot, out to me, so that we could admire it together, lol. Well....I immediately just reached down, scooped open my fingers and planted a four-finger flurry of tickles right in the center of her sole.
The giggle came at immediate contact, a gorgeous titter of giggling as she pulled back her foot (and body) away from me, laughing and smiling, knowing she had "been got". And in that flicker of a moment.........in her eyes......the flirt was on.
Feeling like I had just accomplished something big, like crack Fermat's theorum, or write & record Sgt. Pepper, I felt like a million bucks, I felt like I had just tickled a celebrity or something, I felt like I had just tickled Marilyn Monroe. I had tickled the unattainable, the forbidden one, I'd tickled the rich man's daughter.
And I was emboldened! From then on, it was all upperbody. Pokes, gooses, tickling her if she hugged me....I never trapped her and gave her an all out tickling, that was not the scene, but I got plenty of gorgeous laughter from her because she was most definitely highly ticklish, the type who kept laughing, laughing at the sensation but also just that she had been "got" as if just the idea of being tickled tickled her. I can barely imagine what it would be like to REALLY get her because the laughter would always come effortlessly and melodically. One touch and you'd get a lot of reaction. She never fought it, and one finger was all it took to put her on the defensive. I wish I could remember more specific moments rather than just flashes, but I know that after she got her foot tickled, the whole nature of our rapport changed.
One day my friend - her brother - said to me, "I was with my sister yesterday and she said 'You know who I really like? You're never going to believe it!'" And she said the name of yours truly.
Ah foolish youth! I couldn't believe my ears and I just blurted out, "Rrrrrreeeeally? What did she say? What did she say?" I was like.....give me every detail! What a dope! It just caught me so off guard! I was practically panting and drooling. Yuk. He immediately caught my vibe - and put the k'bosh on the whole thing. It was his sister after all!
But who cares. My ego inflated and my confidence with the opposite sex went way up. But the real takeaway was this: she only saw me that way once I tickled her, once I showed her I wasn't afraid of touching her, touching her to make her laugh, touching that spot. It was always me just touching a spot, always the right spot, and she was sooooo ticklish..... just like a poor little rich girl, getting tickled by the lower classes.
Soon after, I stopped playing music with those guys and moved permanently in to the city and never saw her again.
And what happened to her? She ended up marrying a guy who would beat her up on a regular basis. So much for coming from a "good" family. Pffft.
