The "Hey" Conversation

These are fun, aren't they? I'll be walking the dogs and when I bump into somebody, they may say, "Hey," at which point, they felt they've obliged to friendly neighbor guidelines and can go on doing what they were doing. So, what do I say at that point? "Hey," also? What's the point of that?

Neighbor: "Hey"

Me: "Hey"

It reminds me of the old Hammer song, "2 Legit 2 Quit." Does anyone remember that?

"2 Legit, 2 Legit 2 Quit,
Hey Hey
2 Legit, 2 Legit 2 Quit."

But, what's the point, really? To acknowledge that someone's there and to act friendly? There will be times when a friend instant messages and tells me, "Hey, I just wanted to say hello." But, there is usually brief chatter between the hellos and goodbyes, such as, "How's it going?" or "What's up?" When someone instant messages me, they don't just say "Hey," followed by my saying "Hey" and that's it. If that ever happens, I'm sure I'll write a blog about it, but I'm pretty certain it won't.

It's the same thing if someone calls. Someone doesn't call, say "Hey," I say the same, "Hey," and then we hang up the phones. At that point, if another in the room asked who it was and what they wanted, we could actually say, "It was so-and-so and they were just saying hey."

If one is in their car and wave to a neighbor and they wave back, this makes more sense to me. Why? Well, the vehicle is moving and taking a person somewhere, so it's not like the individual driving and the neighbor can speak much at that juncture. So, waves make perfect sense. But when two people are within a couple feet of one another, making eye contact? The "Hey" conversation just doesn't do it for me. Whenever someone says "Hey" to me, I'll say something like, "Hey, how's it going?" or "Hey, what's up?" Oddly enough, they usually never answer back. If someone comes into "their" space, then they'll look up and say "Hey," but once that is over and done with, they try to imaginatively shoo that person away from their space and get back to what they were doing.

The only time I can tolerate hearing "Hey Hey" is in the song "2 Legit 2 Quit" and I haven't heard that song in a long, long time.