Date:         Thu, 14 Sep 1995 12:01:44 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sami Dakhlia <dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu>
Subject:      Re: waving in the heartland

On Thu, 14 Sep 1995, Dan Houg wrote:

> '... amber fields of grain."
 
[hilarious insight into rural signalling]

<snip>

This goes back to my young farming days in Lower Saxony (northern
Germany). The typical picture is that of the retired farmer hunched over
the steering wheel of his old tractor, hopping and bouncing on his seat
with every small asperity of the "Dorfstrasse." Neither the old man nor
the old machine are still part of the productive process: the eldest son
is now managing the land if it hasn't already been sublet to more
efficient producers. The 40 year old "Fendt" merely takes the old man
around the village from "Schnaps" to "Bier und Skat" with small excursions
to the fields to kibitz and rave about his successor's work. At a
distance, you can see the smoke stacks of the Braunschweiger
Volkswagenwerke (necessary content :-) ). 

Just like in the American Heartland, the wave consists of a slight
elevation of the arthritic and curved right index finger, accompanied by a
slight nod of the hatted head. As the oncoming car approaches, the head
slowly turns to allow a closer inspection of the stranger. We don't smile
up here in Northern Germany. 

Sami