Swedish Super Powers

I've been meaning to blog about the incredible powers of Swedes who live in small towns but something else always comes to mind when I start blogging. I realised this amazing ability that they have early on in my move here but as the months passed, I experienced more and more of this and was awed by the efficiency and accuracy of their abilities.

I've learnt that the older one is, the stronger the ability and only those who live in small towns or villages and have lived there for years and years have it. Big city people are too caught up in their own big city lives to be able to develop this power. The smaller the place, the older the people and the longer their stay means greater accuracy, efficiency and strength in this power. And I will tell you why.

When I first moved to Askersund, I always looked at the husband funny cos he would occasionally, as we are walking or driving thru town, raise up his hand and nod. I would have no idea who he is nodding to, if there really was someone there and it was certainly not to me. So I would ask him, what was that for?

And he would calmly turn to me and say, Old neighbour from upstairs. Or something like that. And I would stand there looking around and see nobody. Where?, I ask.

And he says, Oh the one in that blue car that just passed.

The blue car that just passed?? I looked to the road and saw cars of all colours passing us by, the sky is dark and everyone is wearing a thick jacket and hats in their cars. How the heck did he recognise one man in a blue car among all the men in blue cars driving past? I couldn't see inside the cars even if I squinted and stared and yet within a split second, my husband managed to pick out the right blue car, narrow in and identify the man, catch his attention and wave in greeting.

What?! Seriously....what?

So many questions pop into my head. Firstly, how does my dear husband know what kind of car the man drives? (That's the car he's been driving for a few years now. I think his wife has her own car, says husband.).

Their amazing ability to see and recognise someone in a passing car. even if the car is driving past at 50km/hr among other cars still astounds me. The older one is and the longer one has lived there means that they have had the opportunity to learn the make, model and colour of the cars of all their acquaintances and friends in town. And that is half the battle won.

But it is the other half that still amazes me. It can be 8pm, streets lit by lamp posts and the car interior as dark as it can ever be and yet people walking by can still see the driver, recognise him and wave in greeting. How the heck does one do that?? Unless one has supersonic eyesight or something cos I definitely cannot see anything past the car windows. I can't even tell if the driver is male or female! And it is especially freaky when it is the driver of the car that initiates greeting cos it is always easier to make out the person walking surrounded by light than someone sitting in the darkness of a car, driving.

I thought that perhaps people just wave and nod to almost every car and vice versa so I do a little test sometimes. It's not particularly scientific but nothing I do is ever particularly scientific. Everytime the husband waved to a passing car, I never fail to ask who that was. And he would be able to tell me, matter of factly, without effort or strain. And sometimes the accuracy of his power is proven when we meet the person he had been waving to and they start talking about having waved to each other earlier (not the most stimulating of conversation, I know, so I usually pretend I don't understand what's being said).

This phenomenon does not occur in big cities like Stockholm or Gothenburg, possibly does in the suburbs but I don't know. It doesn't even happen in smaller big cities like Örebro cos not everyone knows everyone else and their personal details. Everything becomes less private in small towns and a lot more familiar. And now that husband works in Askersund itself, the waving and nodding have upped in frequency and accuracy.

I doubt I'll develop that power but I still stand in awe of it. Something so simply yet so impossible for me to do myself.