Ways to Say "Hey"

I got to meet Fred Lipp reading his book Bread Song about a Thai boy who moves to Maine and feels shy in his new Portland neighborhood.   Fred himself used to be shy as a kid but now likes to go wandering about the city, meeting folks.  He talked about subtle ways people might reach out, say hey to each other.  He met a man who took off his cap, lowered it down by his side, and sort of turned it toward Fred.  That was an a real warm hello, Fred said.  Then there's the country way. A man's got two hands on the steering wheel and when you go by, he lifts his right point fingers.  That's a man, Fred says,  I want to go back and have a good chat with.  In Bread Song, the boy gets a warm hello at the  real and wonderful Standard Baking Company in Portland when the real baker, Alison Pray, invites him in to hear the bread sing, the little pops of dozens of loaves when she first takes them from the oven to cool.
Bread Song is one of the books featured in Curious City's I'm Your Neighbor Portland city-wide reading project.