Country Folk Wave

Bubbie took a trip over the weekend through the southland. Sweet Pea went home to visit her mama and left Bubbie with a hole in his life. He figured he’d fired up the ol’ hog and rumble some thunder over some hills and down through some valleys; destination nowhere. He got on it and got outta Dodge. He was just about to really open ‘er up and let ‘er roll when, out of the corner of his eye he spied a fella standing on the side of the road. He was a thin man with black rimmed eye glasses and a gray mop of hair poking out from under an old floppy black cowboy hat. He wasn’t really on the “side” of the road, more like the far side of a grassy easement; just standing there smiling at him, giving Bubbie a wave as he went by. Bubbie kind of nodded as he whisked by still turning the throttle up. He was caught of guard by the fella and checked his mirror wondering if he’d cross the road, but he didn’t. He just stood there grinning at the next vehicle come far off.

Over several hundred miles ridden that weekend, more than a handful of folks waved to Bubbie as their paths crossed; some in pick-up trucks, some pumping gas, some old-timers just shading themselves out in the yard. You see, in the hectic pace of Bubbie’s busy life he forgot that country folk wave. They travel at a different speed taking time to notice those around and acknowledge there existence. Beyond that they care enough to give a smile with a genuine esteem to wish one well. That hole in Bubbie’s life began to get closed in on the bottom and started to fill up again.

There’s nothing to take the place of his Sweet Pea, but what the heck; absence makes the heart grow fonder and he found some other things in his life that he’d lost track of. All that from a smile and a wave from a stranger.