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04 April 2009

Waving With Your Finger (not your middle one)
[More:]I was driving around eastern North Carolina today. A lot of two lane roads running through swamps and scrubby pine forests. In that part of the state, as you are approaching a vehicle coming the opposite way, people tend to make eye contact with you and lift their left index finger off the steering wheel in greeting. It is usually old gents with John Deere hats in pickup trucks who do this. Other people around here have commented on it too. I don't think it is just a rural thing because I don't notice it in the mountains (maybe too busy trying not drive off a cliff).

Anybody have anything similar in your part of the world? Here in Raleigh if you see a finger when driving it is not the index finger.

I knocked out two more counties (Hyde and Dare) in my "Take Pictures in Each of North Carolina's 100 Counties" project!
Not so much in town but on the rural roads outside it I wave at most people walking by the side of the road (not so much at other cars because we tend to be doing around 80-100 klicks and look a little blurry). It just seems polite.
posted by saucysault 04 April | 22:18
It's like that in Linden where my folks live (north part of Cumberland County-Fayetteville being the county seat.)
posted by bunnyfire 04 April | 22:36
We wave at people at intersections to tell them to go ahead when it's either a four-way stop or they want to make a Pittsburgh left. Sometimes it's a whole arm wave but lots of times it's just waving the fingers on the steering wheel.
posted by octothorpe 04 April | 23:03
Left or right index finger raised in western SC quite often. Nowhere else though with any notable frequency.
posted by Ardiril 04 April | 23:12
wave with your finger
wave with your hand
a wave is something
we can all understand
wave with your elbow
wave with your toe
it's a way of saying
"hello, friend, hello!"
posted by flapjax at midnite 04 April | 23:27
Yeah, I think it's an old-school thing. The "one-finger salute" (non-middle) is not uncommon in New England amongst oldsters. Bonus points if they don't turn their head, make eye contact, or otherwise acknowledge you in any way.
posted by Miko 05 April | 00:22
I used to take my dad's Jeep Cherokee on the old beat up mining trails in the mountains north of Phoenix. The index-finger wave was common when passing other offroaders/campers.
posted by mullacc 05 April | 00:25
Where I grew up (rural Georgia/Alabama) this was common protocol... you waved or otherwise acknowledged other drivers. I still feel a little bit like an asshole passing other drivers in rural areas without making eye contact. The index finger, the nod, you're supposed to do something. I don't think people do it anymore, since nowhere in Georgia is really "remote" anymore and so you see other drivers all the time, but I do remember this.
posted by BoringPostcards 05 April | 02:54
You might not know it, but motorcyclists all (well, the vast majority) wave to each other. Before I learned to ride, I did not know this. Now it's completely ingrained, to the point where I can wave while negotiating a turn without breaking my sightline around the corner.
posted by Eideteker 05 April | 07:36
The "knowing nod" when I was out with my ex-boyfriend on his vintage Lambretta was one of my favorite parts of riding behind him, especially if it was between us and and one of them cruiser motorcycles or us and the choppers. I never noticed the racing bike guys to be nodders.
posted by TrishaLynn 05 April | 09:26
On Galiano (small island, west coast of Canada), the wave was common, either one or two fingers, and was done to both drivers and pedestrians you recognized or might recognize or knew were of the island. Indeed, it was one of the easiest ways to spot a tourist (along with a shiny car and a palpable building resentment when waiting in line at the store as everyone had their chat with the cashier. Oh, and Starbucks cups--there was no Starbucks there). It was how I knew I was beginning to be accepted as an islander--walking down the road, I'd get the wave and the occasional offer of a ride. I used to go camping in Arizona, and noticed it there. My local friend said that the wave was because when everyone's possibly armed, you want to be able to spot the crazies.

Love the photography project, too. I've bookmarked it to look through when I've got some time to do it justice.
posted by elizard 05 April | 10:33
Happens a lot in rural Texas.
posted by deborah 05 April | 12:07
Happens all the time in Homer, the small town where I grew up. Not at all in Anchorage. So maybe it's a small-town thing?
posted by rhapsodie 05 April | 12:37
Small-town thing, and a thing in places where folks might get in trouble (e.g., the off-road driving that mullacc mentions, or in places that are prone to blizzards and washouts and whatnot), and a community thing, like among motorcyclists or Jeep drivers (though Chrysler is pretty close to putting that one to bed) or British sportscar fans or whatnot.

A lot of bicyclists do it too, but a lot don't.
posted by box 05 April | 13:00
This is pretty common in rural Australia, too - it used to be considered somewhat rude not to offer the casual index-finger wave as you passed oncoming traffic in those areas. It's not quite so common now, when there are so many cars on the road no matter where you go, but I believe it is still so in the less-populated farming areas.
posted by dg 05 April | 15:20
I've experienced this, in remote areas. . .ok, I'm probably paranoid, but it always felt like "I don't know you, but Immonna wave at you so you know I've seen you here." However, working with a great natured good ol boy in a van situation, he did the wave with total positivity, so I don't know.
posted by rainbaby 05 April | 16:52
#bunnies needs bunnies! || bunny cam, repost from the blue

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