New Year’s Eve 6 min read

A few months ago, I was asked to write this down. Now that I finally have a stretch of time at my disposal I can sit down and write it. It happened during the public New Year celebration 2021/22. Our city traditionally makes a big concert in front of the town hall and brings local and regional stars. The city is also an interesting holiday destination for visitors not only from neighboring countries but also for visitors from further locations. Sure, not all of them end up in front of the town hall, many of them don’t, but some do. Usually there get to be about 30k people, of whom many disperse shortly after midnight fireworks.

In front of the town hall, there is a wide street consisting of three lanes in one direction and five lanes in the other direction that gets closed during the concert. On the other side of the street is a public park where the crowd is much less dense but on the street. The stage is about 10 meters from one of the three lanes in one direction, so the divider between the directions is about 20 meters from the stage.

The divider is about a meter wide and elevated as much as the sidewalk would be. There are placed concrete rectangular flower pots, which are emptied out during the winter, and flat-topped connecting elements, all of them about 60-70cm high. The concrete elements give a good opportunity to see the stage better than others, so it is not a surprise that they get packed with people very quickly.

I arrived later this year, so all the central elements were packed and the crowd was already overspilling around them, so I have chosen one further to the side. I did not choose it accidentally. There was a particular pair of tan-colored western-style boots with leather soles with about 6cm high heels which ended with a not too narrow but wider more stable footprint that guided me to that part of the divider.

I usually when I go to those winter events where fireworks might happen, have a nice old jacket that I like to wear. The fireworks won’t harm it because time has passed a long time ago, but it has a nice attribute, the sleeves end with knitted wristbands, which proved to be very practical on so many occasions.

Later in the night when we introduced ourselves, it turned out that the owner of the boots and her partner were visiting from a neighboring country. They were happy to make an acquaintance so I and the older man sitting on the concrete edge beside me who came as an escort for his wife could keep them the place when they had to go to find a toilet or more booze. She was, I hope still is, an attractive young woman, thin, but not short, so I assumed that she might be heavy. I never stood beside her, but I would assume 175-180cm high, weighing about 70kg with all the winter clothes and the purse.

She was also very lovely and caring. On a few occasions during the first hour, she had thought that she might have stepped on me because my sleeve was right beside her boot. I have told her that if she steps on the sleeve there is no harm done, because it is an old jacket, and if it happens that she steps on my hand which would be highly unlikely, I would immediately tell her because I have assumed that I would feel it. She also assumed that it might be the case because the boots were new. So, that was settled. After enough booze, she did not mention it anymore.
The concrete elements are old and eroded on the edges, and rough on the surface and soon I found out that I would not be able to support her whole weight on such a surface for prolonged periods of time. So, I spent time teasing myself with parts of my fingers where erosion has left a hole, until I have spent one finger, then moved to the next one, and so on. During that night I found out that the best positions were where the neighboring concrete elements connected, where each one is eroded in a different way, so an edge of the heel or some smaller heel could slip in skidding over some buffer material. I, also, at some moments, got the feeling that the concrete might be softer than her new heel tips.

I really like when a girl is pulsing her foot to the beat of the music while stepping on my fingers and during that evening, I could feel much of that. On some occasions the song ended, or the rhythm phase that she liked ended, and she would just stop, and I would feel the agony in that finger or the fingers that got caught under her at the moment. On some occasions, she would slip off the bone catching just the skin between the heel and the concrete, and on some occasions, she would slip together with my finger on the concrete. Those were small slips a few millimeters here and there, she might not even have felt it, but I have.

The night ended up with me having a wonderful new friendship with people who might come back. But also, with three blood blisters from various skin pinches, removed skin above the nail on my ring finger, pinched nail and a long side cut on my middle finger, and a slightly disfigured small finger which has also lost skin on some locations. At some point, I feared that she might see the blood when we parted ways, but I was careful to hug her instead of giving her the hand.

I have also lost the sense of touch in my little finger and the ring finger, but it returned no more than a week later.

For this year I am planning to make a warmer to sit on. I am thinking of either a flannel scarf that could be folded lengthwise and put a few pieces of the EPDM foam inside, and saw it up. So, I can sit on in on a concrete surface for a prolonged period of time. The other reason for the scarf would be to put some beads on the fringes, so someone can step on them when my hands are far away, assert that there is no problem and continue to do so when my hands get down there. If I would forget about the fringes and beads I could go with nylon, or some watertight canvas like Cordura and make a product that I might use even if not going out with plans to get stepped on.