Saturday was scrumptious with 75 degree sunshine toasting us, Sunday was 40 mile an hour gusts of wind whipped rain-enough to blow your socks off and Monday the chill sat in with 4 inches of snow scheduled to blanket Kanawha.
Fueled with three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches followed by a fried spam chaser Bill constructed another 8 feet of the store. I shudder to think what he could have done on a nutritious diet.
Country Etiquette
My Kindergarten through third grade years we lived in Eugene Oregon and each summer we drove over the mountains and came home to Kanawha where we got another years worth of hugs and my Grandmothers pound cake. When we reached Red River county a kind of hush fell over the car and my parents began talking in whispers. Moma had this glow like we were on holy land and my Daddy started giving people the finger.
Now we had driven over 2 thousand miles and he had not waved, saluted or other wise indicated anything, but as soon as we hit FM 410 he was raising his pointer finger at every truck or car we passed and the occupants of these did like wise.
So now years later when we bought the store and began traveling to Kanawha frequently I tried to explain this to my husband.
Now Bill is giving me a hard time about this, as he is a quiet guy who doesn't like to draw attention to himself. If you give someone the finger in Dallas you may be a victim of road rage so after he got comfortable with the friendly custom in Kanawha he began returning the one fingered "howdy", but not without some reservations and detailed explanation about exactly which finger he should use.
I know there are other special places on this earth besides Kanawha. Places where almost everyone you meet has a friendly finger salute to pass along, but they are rare and priceless. If you come to Kanawha, come friendly and remember to give on coming trucks the raised pointer finger, a nod of the head and a smile.
