You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back. —William D. Tammeus, journalist.
The babe, maybe a year old, works to be her own person. Brown curls peak around a bow tied, turban style, around her head. She’s quite content in her daddy’s arms as they move through the cafeteria-style line. She smiles at the grandfatherly man behind them. She waves at him by curling her fingers into the palm of her hand. He returns the gesture with a smile. She repeats her greeting again and again.
The young couple with babe and the older couple end up seated near one another. Babe, comfortable in a high chair, continues her salutation. Her smile is contagious. One cannot help but return it. And we mimic her child-like wave. No words have been spoken, but the child has reinforced her youthful education in learning that her smile makes others smile. A greeting given and returned. In these days of COVID-19 limitations, we realize how much we have missed the small blessings of living, at being waved at and waving back.
What is a wave, a mere gesture at the very least? But in the scope of life, so many good wishes, either as a greeting or farewell, come wrapped in a wave.
One of the most famous wave, the royal wave, must be mentioned. While it began with kings and queens, it’s been adopted by many celebrities and beauty queens who wave at crowds of people. This gesture means keeping the hand vertical and moving it only slightly to prevent injury. Supposedly, it was suggested by a physician treating a royal patient with a wrist injury after a day of greeting people. It’s sad to think that a mere friendly greeting can actually hurt someone.
Probably the second most famous wave is The Wave, the ripple effect of a crowd rising and sitting at a sporting event. Talk about people claiming to have invent this spectator-interaction with a game. According to Doug Williams, writing for ESPN, the first recorded Wave occurred in Oakland in 1981 at an Athletics’ playoff game against the New York Yankees.
Williams writes, “It was organized and led by professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson and was seen by a national TV audience and captured on film. Sixteen days later, on Halloween at the University of Washington in Seattle, former UW cheerleader Robb Weller - back for a game as guest yell leader - led fans in a Wave at Husky Stadium during the school’s 42-31 victory over Stanford.”
However, Williams listed a number of other events where people swear that The Wave was invented.
One person claimed to have done it alone in his living room in 1954. Another claimed it was started in 1945 at a youth softball game in Canada. Another said Ernest Hemingway started it in the 1930s at an unnamed sporting event in Spain.
Living in Southeast Georgia, we cannot consider waving without a shout-out to the Waving Girl of Savannah. The statue on the River Street pays tribute to Florence Martus who, in search of her long lost love, greeted approaching ships entering Savannah by waving a cloth from the lighthouse on Cockspur Island. From 1887 to 1931, ships returned her greeting with a blast of the ship’s horn. Many ships today still sound a salute to the statue.
As much fun as being caught in The Wave at an exciting sporting event can be or as much as we gawk at celebs imitating the royal wave or as touched as we are by the faithfulness of the waving girl, nothing matches a baby who has learned to wave and is rewarded when someone - parents or even a stranger - waves back.
2021
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