"Ashley"
I remember my first tickle of my high school girlfriend well....she was barefoot on the couch, and we were watching TV, and she crawled forward to get something, leaving her soles exposed to me. I gave a quick tickle and she yelped, and came back over and said,
"I'm incredibly ticklish..."
One time Ashley had to go to a podiatrist, and the doctor for some reason had to draw lines down her entire foot with a pen to make some measurements. She said it tickled an incredible amount and it took all her will power not to pull away. She gripped onto the table where she was lying with both hands, and made lots of faces. Her mom was sitting in the office with them, and delivered the statement on Ashley's behalf:
"She's really ticklish."
At another visit with a different doctor, the doctor was checking her alignment and posture. She was standing up, and he put his hands on her hips and and pressed in. He said, "I hope you're not ticklish", and she said, fretfully,
"I am..." She said it tickled like crazy and she wanted to move away but knew she had to stay still for the examination.
"Brittany"
My college girlfriend Britt told me the first time we were lying down together and I started to do a little tickle exploration,
"I'm so ticklish....unbelievable...." (which, relatively speaking, was actually something of an exaggeration, but hey, we'll take it)
After we'd been together for a while, she told me a story of gathering with family at the holidays with a roommate who had come home with her. Her aunt was giving her a foot massage with lotion, and her younger cousin, after watching Britt break into a giggle, said to her roommate,
"Y'all know Britt's real ticklish?" Her roommate, who apparently had heard Britt's giggles in the dorms before, said, "So I've heard...."
"Ella"
I don't remember if another girlfriend, Ella, ever made The Statement herself. But she
learned the hard way about how much massages tickle. A few years later, when we were together, Ella was offered a foot massage while waiting for a facial to set. She declined, out of fear that it would tickle. The woman asked, "Do you have ticklish feet" and she sheepishly replied,
"Yeah, they're really ticklish...."
"Kelsey"
In high school, the girl generally accepted as the prettiest in our class, Kelsey - the blond, blue-eyed, freckled cheerleader - was sitting next to me outside on the terrace on graduation night at our "all night party." I slipped off her moccasin and started ticking her gorgeous bare foot. She started laughing and said,
"I'm so ticklish it's not even funny". After four years of wondering, now THAT was an incredible piece of knowledge to receive on the last night of high school.
***
Other women
don't have it in them to make The Statement. Although Tessa was really sweet, she liked to put forward an attitude of being a little bit tough. She's just someone who never really would admit weakness, and so you'd never hear the words "I'm ticklish" come out of her mouth. Maybe if she'd just admitted it
a group of students wouldn't have had to gang tickle her to find out.
And then there's those who won't ever state the words because they're
too scared. If you're really, really ticklish, admitting it isn't the smartest thing to do - especially if you don't like it. Sometimes I've given a brief tickle and other than the reaction, there's no verbal acknowledgment at all of what happened - a sure sign that you've discovered something that they'd rather you hadn't. Even saying, "It tickles" or "That tickles" isn't quite as definitive as acknowledging "I am ticklish."
I actually saw "Darcy"
lie when asked The Question, before we were together, and say, "In certain places...in certain situations."
This from someone who a medical professional deemed the most ticklish person he'd ever seen.
And lastly, there are those who after admitting it - or at the very least, displaying it - want to make sure that what has been revealed doesn't go any further. I've never shared this classic story on the TMF - and I'll do it in more detail soon - but one night, I was hanging out with my friend Lissie, someone I had a small crush on but never knew if she was ticklish. Well, it turned out she was one of the most ticklish people I've ever met - and she screamed, laughed, howled, and did everything she could to climb off the bed as I tickled her feet and ribs. Standing at the doorway of the apartment at the end of the night, she was about to walk out and she turned around and said,
"Hey...that being ticklish thing...? Let's just keep that between you and me, ok?" She tried to be cool about it, but the look on her face said, "If word gets around about how ticklish I am, my life as I know it will be forever changed."
And with that, I sign off, hoping you've enjoyed immensely, hoping you'll comment, and also share your own tales.
Cheers!
