Out where I live, when we see another human, (on horse, in a car, mowing grass, whatever), we wave at each other. Is this a local phenomenon? I am now rearing another generation of wavers, since my kids wave to everyone, too. The older folks seem most likely to wave first, and those with dusty cars. What does this mean where you live? Here in Minnesota, I think it means, "Good to know there are people around here somewhere." This isn't restricted to those we know, mind you. It's for every person.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), June 25, 2000

Answers

Common courtesy. Acknowledgement and "good morning" (or whatever). Wouldn't surprise me if that was common worldwide in country areas. It is here.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), June 25, 2000.

There's the whole arm wave, the hand in the air wave, and the one finger off the steering column wave. Depends if you're saying howdy to a well-known neighbor, or saying thanks for some stranger waiting for you to pass on the one-lane road.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), June 25, 2000.

A little wave to you! Here in the south it is very common! Everyone takes time to say hello! My children think that people are grumps if they don't wave or wave back!

-- DebbieT in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), June 25, 2000.

Common here too. I think it is a rural thing. I catch myself waving to out of towners or tourists and they look at me like I am nuts.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), June 25, 2000.

It is common in rural OK and KS. My sister from the city was visiting us and we were going somewhere when we passed another car and I waved. She wanted to know who it was and I said I didn't have the faintest idea. She asked if everyone waved and I told her that's just the way people are out here. I think she had been waved at several times before she got to our house.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), June 25, 2000.

Common here too to wave but only on the backroads. No one waves out on the highway. Helen in Southern Oregon

-- Helen (bluechicken@wildbearnet.net), June 26, 2000.

We don't wave on the highway, 'cept to people we know. On the river however, you wave at everyone! They might be who tows you in when you have problems next week! My daughter loves it, and does get in a waving mood on the highway occassionally, nobody refuses to wave at a 4 year old! Jill

-- Jill Schreiber (schreiber@santanet.com), June 26, 2000.

On backroads only here in NW Arkansas. Also have more of a chance if you break down on a back road assuming somebody comes along to see you broke down.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), June 26, 2000.

We do a lot of waving up here on the frozen tundra. I thought it was just to keep warm.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), June 26, 2000.

Definitely it is a rural thing: courtesy from a bygone era. In the cities, one tries to preserve one's own and the other person's "space" or privacy in essentially overcrowded conditions. In the country, it's acknowledging the other member of one's species in the landscape. I've heard that in the South people are more friendly, more people-focussed, so-to-speak ("Strange Fruit" notwithstanding.) Up here in rural NW WA, everyone on our road waves, to each other and to passing cars. But in Seattle, only when I lived in a predominately African-American part of town did my neighbors even talk to me.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 26, 2000.

North Alabama

Most waving on non-major roadways. In town, just doesn't happen.

On the 'home road' a lot of waving. We've only been in our house three months and I already know the 'wavers' and 'non wavers'. Also the 'yard' wavers too.

Seems also to depend on the time of day and the day of the week. Folks out driving the back roads on the weekend don't seem to know how to relate to all these folks 'throwin up a hand.'

I've been away from the rural for too long, didn't know how much I missed a simple wave.

Also, under-20 crowd don't seem to wave - unless driving a truck.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Among those who live here (upstate NY) it's common, especially outside of the town. The only people who look at you funny are the city ppl in their shiny new $50,000 cars. But hey, I think they sort of like it too.

-- Betsy (sassyweitzel@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

The Country Wave- When my step-daughter was living with us, she asked if we knew everybody around here, I told her that's what country folk do. There was an article about it in on of the Reiman magazines (Country, Taste of Home Etc.) a few years ago. I think is't a nice thing to do.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Out here in the far, far Northwest Washington, everyone waves in town, on the highway, even as far east as Kitsap Penisula. Backroad? Nah, you don't wave, you have to stop and chat in the middle of the road even if you don't know the person. THE WAVE is what differentiates the country folk from the tourists and city transplants.

I found a pretty good joke awhile back at farmbid.com that was about why criminals never steal farm trucks. It's too hard to commit a crime with everyone waving.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 26, 2000.

Here in Texas, waving is second nature. Especially in the country. Enter the bigger cities and you wave only to those who you know.

You've got your 'big hand' desperate to be seen wave, for those who aren't familiar with waving, or if their slower in their thought processes. You got your four fingers above the steering wheel wave for strangers. Your one fingered (the good finger, not the evil one) wave for aquaintances and most family and friends. Hot weather when windows are down, you got your flying hand wave, suitable for everybody. And, lest I forget, you got your subtle head nod down, an acknowledgement of the other waver's wave. And you got your head nod up, where you lift your head up slightly, sort of the countrified version of WASSSUUUPPP. Sorry, (gigglin)that's the closest equivalence I could come up with.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), June 27, 2000.

Here in Canada it's common in the rural areas, but not in the urban areas. People in the cities look at you like you're nuts -- even if you've lived down the street from them for ten years. I've lived in Ontario and Saskatchewan -- and been to every province in the country, and it seems to be a rural "common courtesy" type thing.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), June 28, 2000.

I think I may have read the Reiman article or it might have been a piece by Andy Rooney or Charles Queralt(SP?). I would love to read or see it again. It was very amusing. Does anyone have more specifics?

-- Jennifer (acornfork@hotmail.com), June 28, 2000.

If I'd a knowed it wuz you, I'd a retch out and wove.

-- Macinac Harper (Macinac_Harper@juno.com), July 21, 2000.