06/25/2026
Here's another glimpse into the soul of Kimra Hines for Supervisor. I'll be bringing all my skills and my personality into the Davis County Courthouse on January 1st so I want to try to present myself as more than just the one article in newspaper last month.
I wrote this in June of 2022 before I worked at the newspaper. It was published in the newspaper as a guest column as well as in The Iowan Magazine.
The Iowa Wave
I was raised right here in Bloomfield, Iowa. As an adult I fled to Los Angeles seeking fame and fortune or at least less ticks and better weather. I served in the rat race for 8 years before I decided being a country mouse wasn't so bad after all.
I moved home to the family property last year. My city slicker boyfriend made the trip with me to feel out the town and build a relationship with the ticks in case he decided to make the move.
I gave him the full run down on Casey's taco pizza, the hitching posts at the doctors' offices, and the waving. Out of all those things, the waving is what intrigued him the most.
When I finally put him in the driver's seat, he was ready for action. He waved at the first two cars like he was Miss America. I put a stop to that before he got himself beat up. After he slowed his roll, he really got the hang of it, but he was still surprised every time someone waved back. No one got a chance to wave at him first. Each time he saw a car on the horizon he had his hand on the dash like he was about to hit the Jeopardy buzzer for the Daily Double.
It wasn't long before he paused and looked alarmed. He said, "I think that guy just flipped me off." I didn't even have to see it to know what happened. It was the two-finger wave. He didn't quite believe me at first but then the two fingers kept flying so he settled down.
I thought we had moved on from the excitement of waving but I was wrong. As we were driving into town from Savanah, two ladies were walking along the blacktop. As we passed them, one lady raised her arm to wave. My boyfriend practically shouts, "Look at that! A no-look wave!" I didn't think anything of it until I saw his amusement. Yep, we Iowans only have to hear you to wave at you.
A few days later we were driving in town when we met a lady walking while holding a baby. As she held the baby, she simply raised her elbow at us. My boyfriend about jumped out of his seat, "Did you see that? The one-armed baby flap!"
Back at my property, a guy went by on a grain truck and waved, my boyfriend said, "He was ready for it as soon as we looked over".
Later we drove by a guy doing something at his barn which was set back from the road quite a ways. My boyfriend didn't expect a wave from that distance but the man saw us and didn't let us get by without one. "Wow, he even waved from all the way over there!"
After my boyfriend left, my 15-year-old son moved from Missouri to live with me. He got his permit so my days of driving abruptly ended. He too was excited about the waving. He said to me, "It makes my day every time someone waves back at me."
I must admit, growing up here I took the waving for granted. As a young driver, a wave never made my day. It was just something I did as protocol like using my turn signal. It took eight years of being flipped off, cussed at, and the childlike fascination of my two best guys for me to appreciate the thoughtful consistency and variety of the Iowa wave.
