Towhead

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Louise Miller.

Well, hello, Louise. Where are you calling from?

Lake Kiowa, Texas.

Well, welcome to the program. How can we help?

Well, I have a bunch of children, and they all have white blonde hair. And when I was little, so did I. And we heard the expression all the time of, oh, you’ve got a toehead there, or oh, they’re all toeheaded. So I always use the expression, I knew it meant they were blonde. Mm— But I have no idea where it comes from.

Are they all still at home?

No, ranging in age from 13 to 29.

So three out, three in.

Oh, that’s quite a span.

Six.

Six.

Yes.

Six.

Oh, my gosh.

I’m picturing the family photos. They’re great. They’re all always on the beach, blonde-headed kids with white eyebrows.

That’s great.

Oh, my. It sounds kind of blinding, right?

It can be.

With their children, I bet you used a lot of sunscreen.

I do, and I spent a lot of time in the car, which is how I learned about your show.

-huh.

And do you have any thoughts about why your kids might be called toe-headed?

No.

As opposed to…

Blonde?

Yeah, blonde.

No, I don’t. I thought such a strange expression, tried to link it to a language. Whenever somebody says it now, I ask them, do you know where that comes from? They look at me and say no.

Well, now you can do that, and then you can tell them where it comes from.

That’s my goal.

Okay.

All right.

Here we go.

Toe is an old word for flax.

Oh, let’s spell that.

T-O-W.

Right.

We’re not talking about little toe heads like T-O-E.

Right.

I mean, you always spelled it T-O-W, right?

I’ve never spelled it.

Oh, okay.

So it’s T-O-W, and T-O-W is an old word for flax. And if you’ve ever seen flax when it’s taken from the plant, it looks just like your kid’s hair. It’s golden.

Yeah, yeah.

And so you talk about a flax-inhered beauty or something like that.

Oh, they’ll be thrilled with that explanation.

Well, good. But there’s another characteristic of the flax that comes into play, right? Because it’s not just about the color of the toe. It’s about the physical appearance of the toe, right?

Yep.

I don’t hear it that often, but you can use toe-headed to mean, well, sort of like you have bedhead. I think it’s more of a secondary usage, though. Because it’s like sticking out every which way, right?

Yeah, yeah, sort of like flax.

I don’t think that answer is going to be as popular.

No, but I’m sure your kids have that sometimes, too, you know, where they have toe-headed.

Actually, the flax makes so much sense, but it really fits because their hair is like butter. It’s so soft.

Nice.

It’s thick, but it feels, it’s fine.

Right.

The flax just is like perfect.

Yeah, I think you’re going to have to email us a photo.

Right, right.

I would love to email you a photo. I’m a proud mama. Ask me about it.

I was going to say, this is a woman that clearly loves her children.

Oh, I do. I do. And they’re all great. And the grandkids, though, don’t have the golden hair.

Oh, that’s okay.

It’s a recessive gene. It’ll pop up a couple generations from now.

Right.

And they may never know where it came from, but that’ll be the source.

So, Louise, that’s a great answer, Martha, and I think you got what you wanted, right?

I got exactly what I wanted. I even like it.

That’s good.

That’s always good.

Another happy customer.

Another happy customer and a case solved.

Thank you so much for calling, Louise. It’s nice to talk to you. I appreciate the answer.

Okay.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send a picture of yourself and email to words@waywordradio.org.

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