Toe Boy
Eighty's trivia quiz...can you name the latin boy band that shared the airwaves with New Edition? Well I proudly had all 23 of the albums and a room wall papered with posters from Bop! and Tiger Beat. I was 16 and knew what I wanted...a little latin boy dressed in acid washed jeans, oversized ID shirts and color coordinated socks, able to break out into spontaneous song and dance ala MTV videos of the day.
I grew up and so did my heart throbs, but the group kept going and found a renewed popularity in the late 90's thanks to a reunion tour of some of the earlier members. It was a dream come true! I hadn't caught a single concert when I was in school, but this was my second chance. I was the first in line at Ticket Master when the tix went on sale. I educated friends on the music and history of the band so I wouldn't have to attend the show alone. My sister, who I'd brought up listening to the music, was drafted to go with me and I joined a mailing list to meet other fans who were planning to attend and agreed to meet total strangers a couple of hours before the show.
Having printed all the spanish language lyrics off the internet, I studied and was well prepared to sing my heart out. (Sadly, I had never learned the dances, but did get to see groups of 30 something women high stepping in front of the arena.) It was a fabulous night only slightly marred by my being shot in the eye with the confetti gun. But that's another story.
I immersed myself back in the sub-culture of this group, reading boards, joining mailing lists, translating articles into English and visiting chat rooms. And that's where I met Toe Boy.
At first noone believe it really was Toe Boy. Why would one of the chosen, one of the band members, drop by this fan chat room? I was only there because I'd caught rumors that someone "official" might stop by, but I never expected to receive a private message from Toe Boy himself. Not sure why he singled me out, but when given the chance to dialog with the successors of my teen idols, I was all for it.
But the jealous, evil snits in the chat room tried to steal his attentions away and to convince me that Toe Boy was an imposter. He told me he could prove he was real and gave me his phone number. My friend Susie started chatting with him, asking him questions about his twin sister, and after a lenthy conversation, she pronounced him the real deal. (She's friends with a girl in NY who could pass for the twin of Toe Boy; Toe Girl and Toe Boy had met back in the day and he was all kinds of excited to be talking to mutual friends of sorts.)
So I rushed to the phone and called the number and got an answering machine, which is what he told me I'd get. But I didn't know this kid from Adam. He wasn't one of my idols. So we called again and Susie listened and said, that yes indeedy, that was really the voice of Toe Boy. We were sort of like SETI finally receiving communication from an alien life form.
Enjoying my brush with fame, I put Toe Boy on my instant messenger list and we chatted a few times. He was planning a fan get together in Houston and we were invited to the show. A friend of his from the chat room started a conversation with me and we were email buddies for a long time. But one night things got really interesting.
It was 2:30 in the morning and Susie and I had pulled an all nighter watching old videos. (There was a great demand for their stuff among the fans and whenever we got hold of something new, we'd get together and celebrate.) We'd gotten to a section with tapes of the newer boys, the ones way younger than me (like Toe Boy) and I wasn't too interested, so I was chatting online with TB when he decided to share with me that he has always liked feet.
I have always found feet rather disgusting, so I just said uhuh, thinking he'd move on to another topic. Instead, he took a break and moved up to the roof to smoke a little weed. When he returned, he told me all about the things he wanted to do to me with his feet.
Uhuh...I felt my face burning with embarassment. And then he told me whe he wanted me to do to him with my feet.
By this time Susie had wandered over and was reading too. Icky poo. I limited my responses to well timed and appropriate yeahs and uhuhs.
When he was done and conversation went back to quasi normal, he said, "You're the first person I've met who understands about the feet."
Despite his foot fetish, Susie and I attended the show in town, and eagerly went to meet him afterwards. I handed him something to sign and he asked my name. "Trisa, " I answered, "T-r-i-s-a."
His eyes lit up and he gave us a devillish grin, "From the in-ter-net?"
I still keep myself in the group's circle, helping with the Street Team for a different group member and volunteering for a private label. As luck would have it "my" guy is working on a new reunion show with Toe Boy and some others (including my long time crush), and I've recently gotten word that Toe Boy has been ill. It's even been rumored to be the big C, which makes me very sad.
All the songs that might go unsung and all the toes that might go without worship.
I grew up and so did my heart throbs, but the group kept going and found a renewed popularity in the late 90's thanks to a reunion tour of some of the earlier members. It was a dream come true! I hadn't caught a single concert when I was in school, but this was my second chance. I was the first in line at Ticket Master when the tix went on sale. I educated friends on the music and history of the band so I wouldn't have to attend the show alone. My sister, who I'd brought up listening to the music, was drafted to go with me and I joined a mailing list to meet other fans who were planning to attend and agreed to meet total strangers a couple of hours before the show.
Having printed all the spanish language lyrics off the internet, I studied and was well prepared to sing my heart out. (Sadly, I had never learned the dances, but did get to see groups of 30 something women high stepping in front of the arena.) It was a fabulous night only slightly marred by my being shot in the eye with the confetti gun. But that's another story.
I immersed myself back in the sub-culture of this group, reading boards, joining mailing lists, translating articles into English and visiting chat rooms. And that's where I met Toe Boy.
At first noone believe it really was Toe Boy. Why would one of the chosen, one of the band members, drop by this fan chat room? I was only there because I'd caught rumors that someone "official" might stop by, but I never expected to receive a private message from Toe Boy himself. Not sure why he singled me out, but when given the chance to dialog with the successors of my teen idols, I was all for it.
But the jealous, evil snits in the chat room tried to steal his attentions away and to convince me that Toe Boy was an imposter. He told me he could prove he was real and gave me his phone number. My friend Susie started chatting with him, asking him questions about his twin sister, and after a lenthy conversation, she pronounced him the real deal. (She's friends with a girl in NY who could pass for the twin of Toe Boy; Toe Girl and Toe Boy had met back in the day and he was all kinds of excited to be talking to mutual friends of sorts.)
So I rushed to the phone and called the number and got an answering machine, which is what he told me I'd get. But I didn't know this kid from Adam. He wasn't one of my idols. So we called again and Susie listened and said, that yes indeedy, that was really the voice of Toe Boy. We were sort of like SETI finally receiving communication from an alien life form.
Enjoying my brush with fame, I put Toe Boy on my instant messenger list and we chatted a few times. He was planning a fan get together in Houston and we were invited to the show. A friend of his from the chat room started a conversation with me and we were email buddies for a long time. But one night things got really interesting.
It was 2:30 in the morning and Susie and I had pulled an all nighter watching old videos. (There was a great demand for their stuff among the fans and whenever we got hold of something new, we'd get together and celebrate.) We'd gotten to a section with tapes of the newer boys, the ones way younger than me (like Toe Boy) and I wasn't too interested, so I was chatting online with TB when he decided to share with me that he has always liked feet.
I have always found feet rather disgusting, so I just said uhuh, thinking he'd move on to another topic. Instead, he took a break and moved up to the roof to smoke a little weed. When he returned, he told me all about the things he wanted to do to me with his feet.
Uhuh...I felt my face burning with embarassment. And then he told me whe he wanted me to do to him with my feet.
By this time Susie had wandered over and was reading too. Icky poo. I limited my responses to well timed and appropriate yeahs and uhuhs.
When he was done and conversation went back to quasi normal, he said, "You're the first person I've met who understands about the feet."
Despite his foot fetish, Susie and I attended the show in town, and eagerly went to meet him afterwards. I handed him something to sign and he asked my name. "Trisa, " I answered, "T-r-i-s-a."
His eyes lit up and he gave us a devillish grin, "From the in-ter-net?"
I still keep myself in the group's circle, helping with the Street Team for a different group member and volunteering for a private label. As luck would have it "my" guy is working on a new reunion show with Toe Boy and some others (including my long time crush), and I've recently gotten word that Toe Boy has been ill. It's even been rumored to be the big C, which makes me very sad.
All the songs that might go unsung and all the toes that might go without worship.
posted by TrisaTx at
8:32 PM
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