Did people really used to punch each other at the sight of a Volkswagen Beetle in traffic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family owned bugs from 1966-1983 and I’ve never seen, heard or encountered this. Someone must be putting your leg.

Nope, it was real and it happened.

+1

[Anonymous]

Yes, we did it all the time growing up in Southern California.

We called it “Slug Bug.” You raced to be the first to see the Bug, call it out based on the color (for example “Slug Bug Blue!), then punch the arm or leg of your sibling or friend in the back seat.

There were A LOT of Volkswagen Bugs in California in the 80s and 90s. They sold like crazy during the Oil Crisis of the late 70s. If we were on the freeway, you could easily see 4-5 Bugs in the span of 30 seconds. We did A LOT of punching lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for unlocking this memory. There aren't as many bugs on the road these days, but I'm going to introduce this to my kids.

+1. Same! I had totally forgotten that this existed! I have such a huge smile on my face.

[Anonymous]

+1 70s-80s in New England, both to punch buggy & bediddle (apparently I heard padiddle wrong lol)

[Anonymous]

Yes ! Slug bug

[Anonymous]

Punch buggy! Yes but not a real punch- a soft punch to the shoulder. But by gen z standards it’s probably “abusive”.

[Anonymous]

Wikipedia knows all:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_buggy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Punch buggy! Yes but not a real punch- a soft punch to the shoulder. But by gen z standards it’s probably “abusive”.

According to Gen Z standards randomly saying to "hello" to a random person in public of the opposite sex is harassment.

[Anonymous]

My kids do this now. Punch buggy no returns!

[Anonymous]

Yea, and I need to start doing this again! Thanks for the summer reminder OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, anyone here play Monkey Puzzle Tree? Or is that exclusive to Vancouver/my family?

No! What is the that game?

Monkey puzzle tree, grab your knee!

My sister hated this one because I was much better at spotting monkey puzzle trees than she was. Monkey puzzles trees are these ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_araucana

[Anonymous]

Punch Buggy, blue, no punch backs!

[Anonymous]

70s/80s DC, we did that when we spotted Diamond Cabs, which were less common than other taxi companies.

[Anonymous]

My kids did "red punchbuggy, no punchbacks" this morning. So yeah, it was a thing and still is.

[Anonymous]

As an army brat moving we did A LOT of long road trips. Punch buggy, padiddle, drawing on backs, license plate game where we would try to see all 50 states, singing "I Think We're Alone Now" from tape over and over and over again, following along on the Trip-Tiks, random stops at creeks for swims, Ho-Jos breakfasts, hotel coupon books from rest stops and looking for those with pools. We are headed on vacation to the beach in a few weeks, and I may make a no phone rule (although I would really want my google maps).