Saturday morning, the day before Mothers Day and the roads are chock full of offspring. The golden child, the black sheep, the time poor, and the forgetful, all merge into one heaving vehicular mass of desperation searching for the perfect gift.
Having shopped the day before, a cold chill ran through me as I realised I’d run out of an essential ingredient for my Mothers Day lunch, and would have to venture out in to the throng.
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| Thanks to thienzieyung |
Fifteen minutes down the road I’d joined the quest, along with the obligatory queue at a notoriously slow set of traffic lights, made even slower by the addition of road works. I settled into my position as car number 18.
Humming away to the radio it was soon my turn to make the challenging decision of whether to follow the car ahead and keep the automotive conga line nose to nose, or hang back and break the chain. If I hung back it would allow cars on the other side of the road to turn right in front of me and into the massive hardware store car park. Sensing desperation in the air, I decided to be benevolent and left a sizeable space between me and the car in front. As a result I was rewarded with another insightful glimpse into the human psyche.
One by one I watched as 32 cars made the right hand turn in front of me. This in itself wasn’t surprising as it’s an extremely popular hardware store, and the addition of a sausage sizzle had turned it into a Saturday morning pilgrimage.
Out of the 32 cars passing by how many do you think gave me a little wave of thanks?
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| Thanks to gin soak |
In an answer reminiscent of Maxwell Smart…..would you believe ……..5?
Only 5 people waved back, that’s 16%, or less than one in 5.
I was surprised that this didn’t get to me, perhaps my meditation attempts are starting to show results.
Instead the researcher in me kicked in, and as I sat there I pondered whether there was a pattern.
If I’m honest it became a bit of a game…..
- Man on his own….wont wave…correct, that’s one to me.
- Middle aged husband and wife….wave….nope just looked ahead in stony silence.
- Young P plate driver….wave, after all they’ve just read the code book….nope.
- Two young guys in a clapped out ute.…wont wave…..waved, wow who’d have thought, maybe they were listening to the footy and their team just scored a goal.
- Young female…wave….nope, just a bored look.
- Old bearded male passenger ….wave or smile…nope just looked really mean.
- Retired couple….wave….yep, ah faith restored.
- Motorbike guy ….wont wave, needs two hands to steer….waved, wow that’s skill.
- Middle aged male passenger…..will smile….did turn to face me….but nope just a scowl.
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| thanks to Artiii |
As I sat there I pondered:
- Are people scared that their sign might be misconstrued as the one finger variety, and so fearful of an unwarranted road rage incident they do nothing?
- Would road safety numbers improve if the ‘thank you wave’ became a compulsory part of the drivers test?
- Will the scowling passenger and the bearded mean guy get over whatever’s bugging them before Mothers Day lunch.
Happy Mothers Day to all the cherished Mum’s out there who continually give up so much, for what seems like so little in return.
4 Comments
What an interesting little experiment!! I so hope I’d be one of the wavers but it all depends on how noisy my little fella in the back is being. I am a big fan of the driver-to-driver wave though.
Very good point. I’d definitely have you in the ‘waver’ class. Make sure you avoid hardware centre car parks on Saturday mornings, even if the BBQ does smell good.
I think the real question is not one of ‘wave’ or ‘don’t wave’ – but what are hundreds of people thinking their mum could possibly want at a massive hardware store for Mother’s Day??
hehe very good Anon … maybe Black and Decker have bought out a new fangle dangled appliance that’s been featured on Masterchef.