It is Arkansan custom when driving in intimate areas to raise one's index finger in greeting should you pass a car while operating your automobile.

Of course, this is getting less and less common as more and more people flood our River Valley with their foreign customs and ignorances.

I like to scope out the "good ol' boys" (the ladies almost never return my greetings) while driving. If I raise a finger in acknowledgement, if the other driver is about 30-40 years of age, I may get one in return. The chances are doubled if he's wearing a cowboy hat. I'm practically guaranteed if he's also wearing a flannel plaid shirt.

What does it say about our country if we're losing our regional cultures? Those groups subjegated by our government have mourned the losses of their culture (such as Native Americans).

What about the culture of the polite South, where young men acknowledged young women operating an auto-mo-bile and held the doors for them and especially their mothers when they approached the door of a public building at similar times.

Of course, just as no one wants to recount the bloodthirsty sides of cultures, such as massacres and scalpings and sacrifices, we would leave out the flagrant racism (although small talk amongst relatives still makes for a mortified kind of humor (this is expected from all sides, of course)) and the belittlement of women in private, and perhaps some of the hard farm labor.

There's nothing wrong with raising a finger in silent, two-second greeting, though, as you hurtle past one another at 55mph, and really I encourage you all to try it. I'm pleased as pudding anytime I get reciprocation