HIWASSE — At 6:45 on a Thursday morning, 13 cars a minute passed east through Hiwasse on Arkansas Highway 72. A pickup hauled a spiral staircase, a sedan carried a driver sleepily rubbing her eyes and a police officer worked the morning beat.
And, as he has almost every weekday morning for the past three months, Bubba Williams was stationed with his black lab, Thelma-Lou, in front of his shop, smiling sincerely and waving to all who passed by.
Williams, who was raised in Little Rock and relocated to Northwest Arkansas from Florida when he and his wife purchased the Inn at Bella Vista, said that he stumbled on his new morning ritual by accident.
“I’m country. And in the country, when you pass someone on the road, you wave.”
One morning while walking Thelma-Lou - also affectionately known simply as “Dog” - Williams said he waved to a man in a passing pickup. The man smiled and waved back.
“It felt so good, I waved atthe next one, too,” Williams chuckled. “Waving can become addicting, really. So here I am.”
Bubba said that a friend warned him about others’ perceptions.
“This friend said, ‘Bubba, in Louisiana, if a man is standing on the side of the road waving to everyone, we think he’s crazy,’” Williams recalled.
Williams laughed deeply, scratching Thelma-Lou behind her ears.
“I said, ‘Yep.They think that in Arkansas, too!’”
But Bubba doesn’t worry too much about people questioning his mental health. He has a mission: Share a little joy with the people passing by him and enjoy the boost of happiness he experiences when people respond with smiles, waves and joy of their own.
Williams is a Marine who actively served in Vietnam. He said that he has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder - or PTSD - since his return from combat.
“It’s easy to get down. But waving seems to help,” he said. “There’s nothing in the PTSD handbook about waving, but hey, it works!”
Scientists have shownthat there are real benefits to encountering a smile and friendly greeting. People are likely to respond to a friendly face by smiling in response. The act of smiling, in turn, releases chemicals that make people feel better.
Mark Stibic, Ph.D., demonstrated that, among other things, smiling can boost a person’s immune system, lower blood pressure and reduce stress.
But Bubba doesn’t need the researchers to verify that his waving helps. People tell him themselves.
“He makes my day every morning,” said Deb Deatherage, who was on her way to work at the Christian Life Center in Centerton when she pulled in to say hello to Bubba and Thelma-Lou.
“I like waving to eastbound folks for two reasons,” Williams said. “First, when they’re driving east,it’s easier to see people’s faces smiling back at me.”
Williams paused to send an enthusiastic greeting to passing cars and a clump of bicyclists.
“But, more importantly, I know most of those eastbound cars are carrying people off to work.”
Williams said he hopes to give a boost to the people who are heading to work in offices.
“I’ve done plenty of work in cubicles, grinding out thesame work day after day. It’s hard,” Williams said, adding that he also sends out a special morning greeting to lighten the day of laborers heading to work in the heat and the sun.
“Like those guys,” Williams said, waving a tanned hand to a pickup-load of workers and cement, “They’re going to work in hot, dirty conditions, and that’s hard in a different kind of way.”
When he’s not waving, Bubba - who was born Norman Francis Williams, Jr., but has been “Bill” and “ Billy”and “Norman” - serves on the Benton County Election Commission, runs his woodworking business called Cherokee Woodworks, and helps manage the bed and breakfast with his wife.
Bubba is as busy as he wants to be, but he never feels like omitting his new morning ritual. In waving, Williams explained, “A lot of what I’ve believed about people is reinforced. Peopleare fundamentally friendly, and people fundamentally want to be happy. These people, I think of them as my friends. Obviously, they think of me as their friend, too.”
A driver honks and waves, and a child in the back seat grins, as they pass by.
“How could you do wrong, having a fleet of friends with a fleet of neat cars?” Williams said.
News, Pages 2 on 07/06/2011