LET me ask you something.

Do you wave to boaters chugging up the Severn and occasionally pass the time of day with complete strangers on the towpath?

If the answer is yes to both questions, then you’re a person after my own heart. But not all people are the same.

One thing that I’ve learnt on my many walks and assorted peregrinations throughout Worcestershire is that one can become quite adept at being able to tell if a person will return a friendly greeting or not.

Eye contact is everything in such situations. Once someone has ‘smiled’ with their eyes, you just know they’ll follow through with cheery ‘hello’.

But do not expect anything from the under-30s or joggers. The former are too badly brought up to comprehend concepts of civility, and the latter, preoccupied with ego and earphones, just mainly barge past. And as for waving to the motor yacht cruising community, forget it. They’ll be far too busy with adjusting their silly sailor caps to a jaunty angle and showing off to the missus marinading in the sun on the poop deck to bother with the likes of you. Not all are like this but I do notice a distinctly yawning chasm between the friendliness ratio of boaters and the yachting fraternity.

Very occasionally, you will meet the decidedly dodgy character, all staring eyes, leaving a heavy vapour trail of special brew lager in his slipstream. Best avoided at all costs, my friends… keep walking.

But in the main, I find most people are only too happy to nod and exchange pleasantries. And I can think of several of my ‘regulars’, in particular Margaret and Michael, wardens at the Ketch caravan park, Paul and Lyn at the Kempsey campsite, who are the very opposite of so many people I encounter.

Such folk are the proverbial salt of the earth, always there with a smile and perhaps a drink if the bottle opener’s handy. They spread a little happiness wherever they go and firmly place all the rest in the shade.