Anyone who drives regularly through Livermore Falls expects to see John E. “Tex” Wilson’s green Chevy Blazer cruising around or parked on a main road, his white gloved hand stuck out the window and a smile on his face.

Wilson, 75, is known as “The Waver.” He has a sign on the side of his truck proclaiming the name.

“I started waving when I was 2 years old,” says Wilson.

He says his mom, dad and siblings would sit on the porch of their Belton, Texas, home and wave to passing motorists.

He hasn’t stopped waving since.

“I was known as The Waver in every state I traveled to with the rodeo,” Wilson says.

But it wasn’t until he moved to Maine in 1979 that the nickname stuck. The former Marine, a Korean War vet, had strokes in 1989 and 1992, but that hasn’t stopped him from going out on the town.

He’s even gotten to know some of the regulars who wave back. They’ll stop and chat or tease him about the white glove he wears to make his hand more visible.

“I’ve been called Michael Jackson a few times,” he says with a laugh.

His goal is to make people smile.

“If you keep smiling and waving to people, it makes you feel good and you know it makes them feel good.”