Yesterday I was driving through the country on my way back to town.  I should point out that regardless of your affiliation, rural or urban, the most direct way back to town is still through the country.  Anyway, as I was driving along past vehicles going the other direction, I got the finger.  Not just once – nearly half the people I passed gave me the sign.  Oh, not the way you’re thinking.  No, this finger is the universal rural vehicular sign of greeting and acknowledgement.  It’s a very relaxed and informal action, relating the nature of the people who live in the area.

Here’s how it’s done.  You need to relax back in the drivers’ seat…kinda’ like you’re there all the time.  Just pretend the windshield is a television screen and you’ve pretty much got it…unless you have a tendency to fall asleep in front of the television, in which case you might want to just relax.  Soon you’ll be slouching into a laid back, comfortable position, your left elbow on the door armrest with one or two fingers hooked over one of the steering wheel spokes.  Your right hand will be on the wheel somewhere near the top.  This allows easy control and quick response, if necessary.

Now you’re ready.  As another vehicle approaches and you can see the outline of the person (gender identification is unnecessary), raise the index finger of your right hand to a vertical position.  Eye contact is not required, nor is it recommended at highway speeds.

You have just greeted the person who passed you.  Don’t worry if you didn’t see the return wave.  The recipient of your wave may not be unfriendly – they may simply have slow reflexes and waved back as they were even with your rear bumper.

So why is it people use this motion instead of a simple wave?  Perhaps they’re lazy and don’t wish to expend the energy for a complete wave.  Maybe people only wave to others they really like, which in itself could explain a lot.

The actual (possible) reason people use the one-fingered wave can be traced back to the early days of automobile driving itself.  You see, before the widespread use of asphalt and concrete, the roads were all composed of complex chains of road paving chemicals, which basically formed dirt.  These roads became quite rutted from repeated and continuous use, particularly when wet.   In addition to the poor road conditions, the steering systems engineered in the cars of the day also left something to be desired, at least by current standards.  In order to enhance vehicle control, the automobile utilized a steering wheel that was, oh, maybe a yard across.  It was necessary to keep both hands clamped firmly on the wheel just to stay on the road.  Releasing a hand for the purpose of waving could cause the driver to bounce off the road and into a tree, a creek or any number of natural-type things which everyone knows were all over the place back then.  It’s from these origins that the simple raised finger became a greeting…I think.

A friend of mine from the city is actually amazed at this open show of amiability.  According to him, if you were lying injured on the sidewalk, folks here would likely stop to help, whereas people in his city would stop to shove you out of the way…and those are the friendly ones.  He assures me, however, that there are many helpful people in the city, as well.  They would help themselves to your cash, credit cards and any jewelry you might have.  It’s probably just the neighborhood.

I believe there are several reasons for these differences in the human attitude.  The first is the presence of the crowd.  If there are 10,000 people walking on a given street, all packed close enough to catch the same cold virus (not the same type of cold virus – I’m talking the exact, same virus cell) they not only know each of the others are there, they expect the others to be there.  In this case acknowledgement isn’t necessary and they are likely to bump into one another without so much as a grunt in greeting.

On the other hand, if two of these same people are walking in opposite directions across an open field a quarter-mile apart, they will most likely wave to each other simply in recognition not as individuals, but as people.  The important fact here is they are among the few who carry this soil on their shoes.  They may have other things in common, such as occupation or underwear (the same brand, not the same, exact underwear), but the brief bond they share stems from their unique timing and location.

You’ll also find that, in general, people “out here” will just be a bit friendlier, anyway.  They don’t feel they have to worry about the motivation of other folks – partly because people are friendlier and partly because a large percentage of vehicles have gun racks in them; a questionable, but nonetheless effective deterrent to unfriendly behavior and activities.

So the next time you’re driving through rural America and someone gives you the finger, check again.  It’s a similar motion and we don’t want any misinterpretations.

It’s probably just the Dakota Wave.