Waving at the wrong person is no big deal

When I’m out and about with Flossie, I see a lot of people I know, or have come to know, just from walking around our neighbourhood. 

I do a lot of waving. 

Unfortunately, it’s not always to the right people. 

If someone waves to me from a car, I’ll always wave back, whether I recognise the person or not. It isn’t always clear through the windscreen. 

Recently though, I’ve been waving to people who, it turns out, weren’t actually waving.

Firstly, I waved back to a man who was driving towards me in our local lane. Then I realised that he was reaching up to pull down his sun visor. I dropped my arm quickly and fiddled with my sleeve, hoping he’d think I was rearranging my jacket.

I did the same to a woman who was adjusting her sunglasses.

The other day, we were walking near a roundabout. A car turned into the road and slowed right down as we passed. I looked more closely, assuming it was someone I knew. The man raised his arm and I waved back, rather enthusiastically. 

I thought it was a little over the top that he was also tooting his horn. I added a friendly smile to my wave. Flossie wagged her tail. 

I soon realised that he was not waving at all. He was gesticulating at a van driver who’d just cut him up on the roundabout. He was also shouting out of the window. 

I did an about turn and scuttled off with Flossie, hoping that he thought I was waving at someone else. He was probably too busy venting his anger to notice at all.

I started to giggle, picturing his (very rude) gesticulation and me waving and smiling, totally oblivious. 

Flossie looked at me in despair. She’s used to this kind of behaviour. 

I’m wondering if I should switch my default to not waving to people until I’m absolutely sure that I know them. 

But that would spoil my fun. 

As published in the Bath Chronicle, 26 March 2026