This story makes me think of the colloquialism in the northern plains states where if two drivers come to an all-way stop on some dusty dirt road right-of-way is determined by a nod of the head or wave of the hand.

Legally, I don't think there's a rule on the books for offering right-of-way via body language. If you misinterpret them and they drive out and hit you, then you would be at fault. Yet, growing up it seemed like an an unwritten rule that, at an otherwise empty rural intersection, if you have right of way, you should offer it up as a kind of generosity to the other driver.

It's a cultural norm that I would dearly miss and would definitely vary from state-to-state and even from urban-to-rural driving inside the same state.