The Wave

Many years ago, I lived in a small, very rural community that consisted of oil/gas and ranching industries.  One of the things I loved about living in Consort was the random friendliness of people.  It never failed to amuse me to be driving down the road and have people I didn't know waving at me.  At first I thought they were mistaking me for someone else.  Eventually I came to realize that people - especially farmers - waved at everyone.  If I had to put a number on it I'd say a good 80-90% of vehicles I passed on the isolated highways would wave when they met you.  The number increased to closer to 100% if you had a horse trailer.

The wave is one of the things I miss about my more populated pseudo urban area.  People here just do not wave when you meet them on the road.  Instead you run the distinct possibility of other not so nice hand gestures.

This morning while on my run I noticed something strange.  As I worked with Reba and Joe to teach them a "Ditch" command - meaning hit the ditch when a vehicle approaches - I had a couple of people give me the wave as they passed.  At first I didn't think anything of it, but as car after car waved past me I began to wonder, do they always wave at me and I just not notice it, or was today different?  Were people just happier today?  I don't know.  What I do know is I'm going to be watching for the wave as I make my miles down my busy country road.