Waving Guy

My sister-in-law's brother has a large family. So I suppose by virtue of marriage I am somehow related to the waving guy as he is the son of my sister-in-laws brother.

I've known Brent since he was a little guy. He's a nice kid. He was going to the local university for a while. He works at a nearby restaurant. Brent was my nephew's best friend for many years, until my nephew moved away and got married.

Recently his folks became very concerned about this behavior. My own Mother mentioned to me, "Something is wrong with Brent and his family is concerned. He walks up and down the street waving at cars. He's nuts." This was the consensus among the rest of the family.

Brent walks up and down U.S. 27 waving at passing cars and yelling, "You're Awesome."

You may not be aware but in some parts of rural Kentucky, it is very acceptable to wave at passing cars.

My wife's parents lived in California, Kentucky, which is about 30 miles from here as the crow flies.

If I gave directions to their old home I would tell you to head south about 10 miles, then turn left and drive to the Sticks. When you finally arive in the Sticks, if the weather is nice you drive past people sitting on their front porch and they will wave at you.

Even if the car was driven by Fidel Castro with Hitler, Bin Laden and Mousolini as passengers, these nice country folks would still wave. The proper protocol is for you to wave back. They do this because they are afraid you may be someone they know or kin to someone they know and they do not want to give the appearance of being impolite. I'm sure this is the norm in other parts of rural America.

So my family was very concerned about Brent's behavior. I wish they would have sought my advice. For I lived through the 1960's and early 1970's and consider myself an expert on this subject. Brent is not sick. Brent is a Hippie.

The newspaper report from yesterday confirmed my diagnosis. Brent has changed his name to Karma Jen Soulace. He states that his philosophy is to fight evil with a smile and wave.

This change reminds me of folks that lived around the University of Cincinnati and used to hang around Eden Park. During Summerfair colonies of these folks emerged. They all smelled of patchouli and burning hemp. They ate a macrobiotic diet which kept them looking malnourished. Usually they were named Sunshine, Rainbow or Moon boy. They were Hippies. Sounds like Brent, doesn't it?

Poor Brent was born about 40 years out of sync with his people.

Most of the hippies eventually got whacked in the head with reality, went back to school and got a job in marketing or as stock brokers. So Brent's folks need not worry. He will turn out alright.


In the meantime, Keep on truckin' Brent.