It’s an old joke, one without a punch line, at least poignantly funny if not politically improper. But humor is sometimes granted a hall pass on history so long as it is just a hall pass. The attic, boiler room and closets are still off-limits or require a key for entry (a skeleton key, naturally).
History tells us that Gen. George Custer made a fatal miscalculation shortly before the battle at Little Big Horn when he might have mused, “They seem like friendly Indians.”
Perhaps the general would have fared better had he been given a sign of the ill will felt, a hand signal of some kind, the 1800s version of today’s middle finger, their prairie rage a precursor to today’s road rage.
Surely hand signals have been around since the first man, most certainly after the first woman joined him, the women from the beginning wanting more and better communication than just the grunting done between men.
But I am starting to see hand signals today that I do not recognize.
I see concert footage on television – not the philharmonic, mind you, but arena or stadium concerts of all genre of music – with mosh pits and armpits of younger and younger fans holding up any combination of thumb and fingers that apparently signal their approval of good music and good times.
I suspect that each generation wants its own hand signs with its own meaning attached to them, and that is how it should be, new and fresher thinking by younger generations that will reach far beyond music and hand signals.
Some of the hand signals from generations past have lost their luster or meaning, and maybe there is hope that even the bird of ill will may someday become extinct, too.
As long as we have organized sports, the raised index finger signifying “No. 1” will have a place in our culture, however curious and silly that claim may be.
The raised thumb signifying a positive, this-worked-out-well signal still makes an occasional appearance, but with the exception of its need in military communication, it is teetering on dorkiness in civilian life, its usefulness reduced to the photo-op or haste of a I-can’t-talk- now moment.
Even the venerable peace sign, the raised middle and index fingers birthed in the peace movement of the 1960s (but morphed from the “V for Victory” sign of the previous World War II generation) has undergone yet another metamorphosis.
It is apparently trendy or even hip to flash the peace sign sideways, the perfect form being the 45-degree angle your arm would be at if it were resting in a sling, and even though the peace sign’s new position makes it look like the more-than or less- than math symbols, maybe it now has the inclusive double meaning of more peace/less war.
I suppose I don’t really need to know the meaning of some of the newer hand signs, having gotten along just fine so far without an earring or tattoo or wearing my ballcap backwards, so I probably won’t even ask.
Unless, of course, it is true that these so-called street gangs have their own hand signals, too. If I have to be shot while sitting at a traffic light, I would prefer for it to be for a noble cause, and not because I inadvertently flashed a rival gang sign by scratching my nose with the wrong combination of fingers.
I can’t think of a better way to end this column than to have you sign off to me with an appropriate hand gesture. Even if I could see you, I might not know what your hand signal means, and even if I did know the meaning, surely it wouldn’t be something unflattering.
After all, you seem like friendly readers.
Marty Likens (martylikens@peoplepc.com) works for Shamrock Foods of Commerce City.
