Two hour drive on the freeway through clogged-up traffic yesterday. Husband driving, God bless him. So I sit and look out my window and watch people. This happens to be one of my favorite activities. I’m curious about folks. I wonder about them – where are they going? Why? How do they feel about driving? What strategy do they use to stay calm as they drive through traffic jams?

We’re in the far left – in the commuter lane – and I notice this brown delivery truck two lanes over to the right. The driver has his window down and I wonder about this until I notice that he’s smoking – and then I realize he must be trying to keep the smoke out of the cabin. My heart goes out to him – I’m thinking he must be cold with the window down like that. And suddenly he turns and looks right at me. I smile at him, and he smiles back and waves. This, I decide, is a very cool way to spend one’s time.

So now I’m looking around for my next victim of friendliness. And – boom! – I see him right away! A state patrol car is moving into the lane next to us. I smile and wave, and he gets a kind of surprised look on his face, then smiles at me, and returns the wave before pulling forward and ahead of us.

Now we’re moving like molasses through the thick of a traffic jam. A car with Canadian license plates is coming up on our left. The driver – a friendly young man smiling one of those beautiful smiles you might see in a Coca-Cola commercial indicates that he has a question, and my son rolls down his window, “How do I get to Seattle?” the man asks. My son points to the Space Needle coming up on the right, and answers with a grin,”You’re there!” The man thanks the son, waves and smiles his Coca-Cola smile, and moves forward in his lane.

Sometimes one meets the nicest people on the freeway. 🙂

Okay, I know soda pop is not good for one’s teeth or one’s waistline and I don’t often drink it – but I cannot help myself – I love this commercial (from 1971) –