{"id":7141,"date":"2022-04-11T09:48:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T13:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7141"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:23:39","slug":"its-a-jeep-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/04\/11\/its-a-jeep-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Jeep Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If every able driver in the United States drove a Jeep Wrangler, Americans would be on a road to permanent peace with one another. Wrangler drivers who read this article know that statement is true. There is a national social group of Jeep Wrangler owners\/drivers who wave and peace-sign their way through traffic. No annual dues, cell phones or laptops necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A Jeep driver waves at a passing Jeep driver.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rhett and Christi Bolen stepped up into their firetruck red Jeep Wrangler Unlimited to get out for a top-down cruise. Rhett is a Captain with the Monroe Police Department (North Carolina). Christi works part time as an emergency services dispatcher for a neighboring county. They have owned their Wrangler for about four years. \u201cWe love to just climb in and go for a ride,\u201d Rhett said. Then he added with a smile, \u201cespecially when we get a chance to get away to the beach.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rhett and Christi are part of a little-known subculture of American vehicle owners. They are in the Jeep Wrangler family. The only requirement is to own a vehicle in the Wrangler lineup, from the \u201cAltitude\u201d to the new \u201cJeep Gladiator,\u201d which is a truck. \u201cI really didn\u2019t know what was happening at first. It was kind of weird,\u201d Christi said. \u201cI was driving down the street, and complete strangers in other Wranglers were waving at me.\u201d Christi talked about the customary wave or peace sign Wrangler drivers give when they meet other Wranglers. \u201cI finally caught on,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Rogers, a recently retired police officer from Monroe, also owns a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. He parked his motorcycle and transitioned to the Wrangler about three years ago. \u201cIt is interesting that a complete stranger waves at you with no regard to who you are or what you\u2019re about,\u201d he said. John likes to relate police issues to topics of discussion. He used a peace analogy about the recent national media reports of the contested vaccine mandates for the Chicago Police Department. He said that if those on opposing sides drove Wranglers, there would not be an issue. \u201cIf Mayor (Lori) Lightfoot and the head of the Chicago Police Union (John Catanzara) passed by each other in Jeep Wranglers, they would wave or give the peace sign to each other. Because that\u2019s just what we do,\u201d he said as he laughed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No one can pinpoint the origin of The Wave. One of the theories is that the wave originated from the mutual acknowledgment of shared experiences and shared spirit of top-down adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wrangler drivers share negative experiences. For example, the amount of time and effort it takes to put the top up and down or off and on is challenging. They get caught in the rain with the top off. They must stop more frequently than most other vehicles on the road to fuel up. The tank-like handling of a bunch of heavy metal parts can be taxing. There is constant noise that drowns out conversations. Sunburns are common. But those shared experiences are all part of the Wrangler family motto: <\/span>It\u2019s a Jeep Thing<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Wrangler drivers share<\/span> positive experiences: They know that putting the top up or down, no matter how time consuming, means that there <\/span>is<\/b> time with the top down. That means wind in their hair. Wrangler drivers share the thrill and anxiety of getting to shelter to get the top up before the rain falls. They slow life down to wait the rain out under an overpass. They have laughable times when they got caught in the rain. The tank-like feeling also feels like added accident security. The noise that drowns out conversations means that one can experience the ride in peace. Cell phone conversations are brief with the top down. These experiences are also Jeep Things.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are the little colorful rubber ducks that Wrangler drivers secretly pass on to each other. That too is a Jeep Thing. Only Wrangler drivers do that. The duck is a mutual culture-wide symbol of the giver\u2019s respect of the receiver\u2019s Jeep. Some owners collect them, but most pass them on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John said with a grin, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like driving a long road under a canopy of shade trees on a sunny spring day with the top down and singing as loud as I can and nobody cares. It\u2019s freedom. The everyday concerns get put on the back burner for a while.\u201d John admitted he is a terrible singer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Christi Bolen echoed that \u201cfreedom feel.\u201d \u201cNo one really cares who the driver of the other Wrangler is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like this,\u201d she added. \u201cThe driver of the other Wrangler can be any color, any gender, any political party, any anything. We don\u2019t care. We Wrangler drivers enjoy and endure the same things to enjoy the feeling of freedom in our journey. There\u2019s kind of a mutual respect to know what the other goes through to experience it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThink about it,\u201d Rhett added, \u201cTwo drivers in opposing directions, who have no idea of anything of the other, except for the vehicle they drive. They wave and give a sign of peace and respect to each other, then go about their own way. We all should always be like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If every able driver in the United States drove a Jeep Wrangler, Americans would be on a road to permanent peace with one another. Wrangler drivers who read this article know that statement is true. There is a national social group of Jeep Wrangler owners\/drivers who wave and peace-sign their way through traffic. No annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8160,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141\/revisions\/8160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}