When I was very young I used to think that, for a driver, lifting their index finger off the steering wheel as another car approached was an integral part of driving.
It was, I thought, the day time equivalent of dipping your lights.
In fact, so convinced was I that this was something you must do while driving, I used to make sure I did it as well when I was ‘pretend’ driving.
Of course in my day, ‘pretend driving’ did not involve a Playstation or X-box or anything quite so fancy.
Instead we used a basin. Or the lid of a saucepan.
Basically anything that was round that we were allowed to use – and more often than not even something that we weren’t!
We didn’t have fancy graphics – we had live 3d action. We got the real feel of movement, because we umm, moved.
Yip, we would have walked or run around with the steering-basin in our hand avoiding obstacles in our path by carefully turning the wheel, I mean basin.
And of course, not forgetting to raise our index finger politely whenever we would meet someone else who was moving in the opposite direction.
We also did the noises.
I mean electric cars were unheard of in those days – although well all longed for the year 2000 when cars would fly like they did in the comic.
What a disappointment that turned out to be – unless you count the bumping inches off the ground as you drive over roads that could possibly be like the surface of the moon.
Anyway, back in my idyllic memory of cars and driving, everything seemed so polite and fun and exciting and I was quite looking forward to the progression from basin or saucepan lid to a real car.
But things have changed.
Driving can be a stressful business now.
I mean for a start we have road rage. People are always in a hurry. Angry and aggressive driving seems to be part of everyday life now.
Most people it would seem live by a simple rule on the road.
Anybody driving slower than them is an idiot – but anybody driving faster than them is a maniac!
And if they lift a single finger off the steering wheel to gesture to you, chances are it is not the same finger or the same gesture of days gone by.
So you can imagine my surprise over recent weeks when driving around Kilcar and Glencolmcille as driver after driver I met on the road, raised their finger or hand – old style – in what seemed like a genuine and friendly salute to another road user. (That was me by the way).
Ok, so maybe I had made it sound a bit like nobody ever does that any more when they do. But here’s the thing, I think most people usually only now do it to a few people they know and who they are pretty sure will acknowledge them in a similar fashion.
So for the first few weeks these gestures in a far-flung part of Donegal caused me some serious headaches.
The first time I’d noticed it, the car was almost past in the opposite direction when I’d realised what had happened.
And then I spent ages wrecking me head wondering who that was, who did I know who drove a car like that and why would they be down in this part of the county.
Umm, oh yeah and what would they say to me about not even giving them a wave back.
And then the driver of the next car did it too and I was sure then that there must be a few people I know touring around the county.
I was wrong. After about the third week I realised that there are still some friendly drivers around. I guess there is no point in stressing or trying to hurry too much when the sheep can decide how fast or how slowly you go on the road.
And that made me happy.
I was driving through one of the most beautiful parts of the entire country and the people were friendly and welcoming and it was all great.
In fact it even made me resolve to be a more courteous driver if I could and it was all going great too until last week when, on the way back home I got stuck in a traffic jam in Ballybofey and the guy in front stopped for the amber light at temporary traffic lights.
Were it not for the fact that I could see from his outline ahead of me that he was huge, I think he would have seen my gesture to him with a finger from both hands.
Instead I just mumbled to myself as I made the gesture below the line of the steering wheel thinking if I this was a saucepan lid and not a steering wheel I could probably clobber him with it.
But then he turned around, looked straight at me and gave a kind of acknowledging wave, so I politely uncurled the rest of my fingers and waved back as I began to wreck my head wondering who the hell he was.
I was almost home when I’d concluded that I didn’t know him at all, he was possibly just being friendly.
At an amber light! Seriously.
He was miles away at this stage, but I waved to him anyway with two fingers.
The fricking eejit.
