HoldToes
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Recently while talking with a friend they were telling me about some unfortunate circumstances they were experiencing. I, naturally, expressed sympathy, and reflexively said "Hold Toes".
This was, understandably, met with a baffled expression of non-comprehension. Fortunately our friendship is sufficiently close that they didn't think I'd gone mad (at least, not based on this evidence) and asked for an explanation.
It goes a bit like this ...
(All dates are guesswork and while probably wrong, they are non-critical)
Some considerable time ago ... around 2002, 2005 ... something like that ... my wife and I were travelling and were going to have dinner with some friends. They had recently moved, so we were unsure of being in the right place, and having rung the doorbell I had turned to Rachel to say "Hope this is the right place!" when the door was flung open, Charles appeared, and with neither preamble nor preliminary said:
"Don't you just hate it when someone says exactly what you were about to say, as if they'd stolen the words from you!"
We paused, then said: "Hello Charles, lovely to see you too!"
We were then given huge hugs and swept inside for a lovely evening.
After dinner we settled down in the lounge with a DVD on in the background, and Charles' wife Caroline disappeared, only to reappear with four, HUGE cuddly toys. And I mean HUGE. So we each had one to cuddle, peering around them at the TV or each other, mostly ignoring the film and chatting about many, much, and various.
Then at one point Rachel caught my eye and unseen by Charles or Caroline, quietly reached forward to squeeze the toes of her cuddly companion, and I said:
"Did we tell you about ..."
Rachel interrupted with: "No ... we didn't"
Charles erupted ... "See !! See !! That's exactly what I was talking about !!"
Played for, and got. Hook, line, and sinker. I had known exactly what Rachel was doing, I played along, and Charles was caught.
So what was going on?
Now wind the clock back a couple of years. 2001? 2002? Something like that. Rachel and I were fairly recently married, in our new home, and we were visited by a long-standing friend, Xena, and her infant, Xavier. (Not their real names). As we met Xena on the doorstep we were introduced to Xavier, who smiled ... which was nice. Then as we led Xena into the house she said: "And I didn't even have to squeeze his foot."
Cue our embafflement.
Xena went on to explain that infants can often be comforted by putting a hand on their tummy, or a hand on their forehead, or by holding their toes and giving a gentle squeeze. So when she is introducing someone to Xavier and is unsure of how Xavier will react, she will often give his toes a gentle squeeze, which has the effect of Xavier feeling comforted, and often resulting in a smile. Which is nice.
But she didn't do that for us ... and Xavier smiled anyway! Which is even nicer.
And thus the term "Hold Toes" has entered our familect.
(I did warn you that this was a long story)
Now wind forward again to sitting in front of the video with Charles, Caroline, and cuddly toys. Rachel deliberately reached forward to squeeze the toes of her cuddly toy, knowing that this would prompt me to ask if we'd told the story about Xena and Xavier, purely so she could interrupt, and thereby bring Charles back to his complaint about people stealing words from him as he is about to say them.
So to this day when someone needs comforting this story comes to mind, including the multiple threads, and I offer comfort by (usually (but not always!) metaphorically) offering to hold their toes.
One of the LongStories
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