Among Friends

[On It]

We have no children in our family, so I am out of touch with children and the things they do for fun. A boy about 10 or 11 was standing across from me on the busiest street in town. I was sitting across the street and noticed he started pumping his right arm which was bent at the elbow up and down rapidly. It looked like he had his fist clenched. As cars would approach he pumped harder and faster. Then a car gave 3 taps on its horn. He kept standing there watching traffic and pumped his arm whenever a group of cars approached. Another car gave some taps on its horn. The child left with a smile on his face.

Do you know what he was doing? Some time after he left it dawned on me. A Subaru commercial shows a puppy riding in the backseat of his parents' car. When they are passing a truck, the puppy raises its front leg and pumps it up and down just like the little boy was doing. The trucker is a dog and he gives some toots of his horn to satisfy the little guy.

Is this a game children are playing? How did the drivers know what he wanted? I am so out of touch!

[Goldengate8361]

I have no idea how I know this...but I think that's a universal thing. 

[nana59]

i'm 71....i used to do that when i was a kid.....so a trailer truck driver would blow his horn.....

[ThinkingOutLoud]

This isn't new. As a kid myself, it was a common thing to do on road trips when passing semi's. Yes, it's a signal for them to honk the horn.

[Drythe]

@On It 

Oh dear, you are obviously a mere babe!

We used to do this to get the truckers to pull their klaxon horns!

[Xivambala]

I'm in my mid 60's and that was done on road trips when I was a child to encourage semi truck drivers to blow their horns, but I've never seen this done with regular cars. New to me.

[Anonymous032819]

It's nothing new. I did this as a child back in the 1970's.

Yes, it's to get truckers to blow their horn.

 https://youtu.be/ds3KtJM6ER0 

[Kachina624]

@On It    This is nothing new.  My young son and I used to ride home every afternoon on the freeway.  Frequently when an 18 wheeler came up beside us, he'd pump the air to get the trucker to blast his air horn.  I'd nearly jump out of my skin.  He thought it was extremely funny, of course.  This was in the late 1970s.  I think dad taught him this trick. 

I think the kid you saw must have been trying to get people to honk at him.  Cheap entertainment. 

[On It]

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@Drythe wrote:

@On It 

Oh dear, you are obviously a mere babe!

We used to do this to get the truckers to pull their klaxon horns!

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I think it may be the opposite. I am too old. We did have cars in my childhood, but I knew nothing about that trick. Probably another pitfall of growing up on a relatively isolated farm. Until this afternoon I did not know such a thing existed. I just thought Subaru was extremely clever in its advertising.

[Another new name Sue]

Well, Subaru ads are pretty good.

Truckers are most often willing to sound the horn if kids ask by doing the hand motion.  It used to thrill my kids.