Ever
wonder how "Save the Wave" started?
This is a
reprint of an article, titled "SAVE THE WAVE" that
appeared in
the August / September 1969 issue of the Corvette News.
SAVE THE WAVE
Ever since Corvette No.
00001 first met Corvette No. 00002 on the road, their drivers
saluted each other with waves. Today, unfortunately, this
grand and glorious tradition is wavering.
There's one item of standard
equipment that comes as a pleasant surprise to every new
Corvette owner. It's an instant wave of recognition he or she receives
when he meets one of their ilks on the road. The first time it
happens, they will be taken by surprise. He immediately
thinks:
1. He has been mistaken for Sterling Moss
2. His lights are on.
3. He has just been given the bird.
Soon, however, the new Vette
owner anticipates, indeed even relishes, encountering other
Vettes as he drives. During this period, he experiments with
his waves, running the gamut from the gaping"yoo hoo"
to the ultra cool "two finger flip." He perfects his
timing, making sure he affects neither a too-early wave, nor
the jaded "oh brother" too-late variety. Determined
not to be one upped, he even developes a defense mechanism for
non wavers, usually settling on the "Wave? My hand was
just on the way to scratch my head" approach. (This is
especially useful when you're not driving your Vette, but you
forget, and like a dummy, you wave anyway.)
Indeed, one of the most
perplexing problems facing a would-be waver is what to do when
driving next to a fellow Vette owner. Passing him going in
opposite directions is one thing. Greetings are exchanged, and
that's that. But what happens when you pull up next to a guy
at a light, wave, nod, smile and then pull up to him at the
next light, a block later? Wave again? Nod bashfully? Grin
self-consciously? Ignore him? Or take the chicken's way out
and turn down the next side street? If you're expecting an
answer, you won't find it here. Sad to say, some questions
don't have any.
Girl-type Corvette drivers
also have a unique problem: to wave or not to wave. This miss
or misses who borrows her man's Corvette for the first time is
immediately faced with this quandary. Should she wave first
and look overly friendly, or ignore the wave and look like a
snob? Most ladies who drive their own Vettes prefer to suffer
the latter rather than take a chance of being misread. For
this reason, all girls are excused for occassionally failing
to return a well-meaning wave. So are new owners who are still
learning the ropes.
There is no
excuse, however, for a guy who refuses to return the wave, not
out of ignorance, but of arrogance or apathy. While this type
of behavior is the exception to the rule, it seems a few
owners of newer models [remember this article was written in
1969] refuse to recognize anything older than theirs, while
some others simply won't wave, period. Boo on them. These
ding-a-lings don't seem to realize that they are helping to
squash a tradition that had its beginnings back when most of
us were still driving tootsietoys.
So now you
know the meaning of:
"SAVE THE WAVE"
