
Who Knew Headlights Could Be So Offensive in Minnesota?
We’ve all seen people use the phrase “I was today years old when I learned...”, and it’s normally something that most everyone else already knew.

I learned today that my efforts to be polite on the roads around Central Minnesota were actually offending Minnesotan’s. I need to offer some framework for what I’m talking about.
I moved to Minnesota in September 2023, my wife moved here from North Carolina. As I have written before, we knew there would be a learning curve on the Mid-Western and Minnesotan culture, and lifestyle.
There are a lot of similarities to living in the south compared to living in Minnesota. The people are friendly and caring. When it comes to supporting causes in the community both regions are similar in how they like to help.
The accents are completely different, which is evident when someone hears my wife or I speak in public, you can tell pretty quickly we aren’t from around here.
Communicating is something we feel that we’re doing better, except when it comes to communicating on the roads. I had an incident happen recently that made me really think about what I had done.
In the south, we flash our headlights as friendly communication, which is what I did when I arrived at a 4-way stop at the same time as another driver.
I wanted him to go first, and I just quickly flashed my lights, and this guy got so angry. He was waving his arms and shaking his fists, and I could tell by the strained look on his face that he was cursing me out. (in the south we would say cussin’ me out).
I brought this up on the air and my co-workers and listeners told me that the “mid-western wave” is the correct thing to do in that case. If you’re not familiar with the term “mid-western wave”, it’s where you use your arm and hand to indicate to the other driver you want them to go first.
So, please let this serve as my formal apology. If I’ve flashed my lights at you at one of the many 4-way stops around Central Minnesota, I didn’t realize I was being rude.
I’ll work on my “wave on through” motion to make it easier for me to fit in and stop creating so much road rage.
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