Silly thread: Remember the "Punch Bug" car game from the 70's?

[BikeBookBread]

Okay, I was watching Lost (or it may have been Amer. Idol) last night, and on comes a VW ad. They're punching each other, and shouting, "red one!" "blue one!" etc... So it hits me! They're playing Punch Bug!

 

Anyone else play this game in the 70's? Anytime you saw a VW bug, you shouted, "Punch Bug (and said the color of the Bug)!" and got to punch the person in the car with you. It was a VW Micro Bus or Vanagon, you said, "Slug Bus (color)!" My husband looked at me like I was INSANE when I was explaining the ad to him. He grew up in Minneapolis, I grew up in Seattle. Was it just a Pacific NW thing?

[Chris in VA]

We called it Slug Bug. I grew up in Ohio.

And yes, they weren't punching each other because they saw VW bugs, but VW "other cars."

I loved the Stevie Wonder part! lol

[MariannNOVA]

:lol::lol::lol:

 

'Punch Bug Yellow'

(my mom drives a yellow bug)

 

It was a super bowl commercial and DH and I both laughed -- we both remember it!

[mrsrevmeg]

We played that game in Alabama, in the eighties. My kids like it, but we don't do the punching. They take all the fun out by hitting too hard and making someone cry. :angry: Over the years we have added bonus points for certain things like if it is an old one you get three points, if it is convertible you get two, five for an old convertible.

[MamaT]

Yes, I remember. My kids and their friends still play it, but they say "Punch Buggy, no punch back." Driving them an hour to and from gym/dance, etc., the other mothers and I hear it all the way there and all the way back.

 

My kids also play "tweeter." Yellow cars and trucks are tweeters. Whoever has the most points when you get out of the car wins. DMV and Penske trucks do not count.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I never heard of the game, but I did find that commercial hilarious!

 

ETA: Born and raised in the 'burbs of Chicago.

[swellmomma]

We would punch the other person and say "Punch buggies no returns". That would have been in the 80s in Alberta(well and to be honest 1/2 of the 90s too since I played it with friends when were were teens). My kids play it now.

[Quad Shot Academy]

Someone taught that game to my kids. :glare: I had not heard of it, but my hubby had. I told the kids that they would have to change the game, as I just couldn't tolerate the ruckus. They came up with Hug Bug and they give each other a hug.:Angel_anim:

[MomToJediKnights]

Florida in the 80s - Punch Buggy! :lol:

 

Texas in the 80s (DH) - Slug Bug

[Laurie4b]

It's played in the southeast as well.

 

We also played "Padiddle!" The first one to yell "Padiddle" upon seeing an oncoming car with one headlight gets to punch the other person in the car... or if it's guys and girls, there is a variation where girls get to punch, guys get to kiss. Prolly not a popular variation on this board, LOL!

[Veritaserum]

This Southern California girl played. :) We only owned VWs (buses and bugs). Good times....

[abbeyej]

I played it in the South in the 80s. My kids learned to play it from friends. I don't think it ever really died out. :)

[mommaduck]

Slug Bug...70's and 80's...mostly remember playing it in the Northwest. One of my cousins lives in UT and she played it also.

 

I loved the commercial, but had to explain it to my kids.

[BikeBookBread]

My kids also play "tweeter." Yellow cars and trucks are tweeters. Whoever has the most points when you get out of the car wins. DMV and Penske trucks do not count.

 

That's cute! :) My girls yell "purple car" and "pink car" when they see those. I think I'll need to come up with a name for them... But tweeter is darling!

[Pamela H in Texas]

I didn't play it in the 70's due to my age at the time. However, when my own kids were younger, we did it quite regularly (calling it SlugBug instead though).

 

We also did "PT CRUISER BRUISER" Same idea :)

[creekland]

We did Slug-a-bug in the 70's in upstate NY. Hubby did Punch Buggy in VA/NC in the same time period.

 

Our kids prefer Slug-a-bug, but now that they're teens they often declare "Slug-a-bug free" trips. I think they're tired of it.

[Heather in WI]

We said, "Punch Buggy!" "No punchbacks!"

 

Now, my kids want to hit each other and/or me every time they see a VW! We need to have a talk about succumbing to advertising. :lol:

[Tap]

I am surprised how many people didn't know about this game....LOL

 

 

I grew up with it, and my kids still play today. We did grow up in the PNW, so maybe that is part of it.

[jonesloonybin]

It was Slug bug on the west coast. We play but no actual hitting allowed. My oldest is trying to get Cruiser Bruiser to catch with us...but it is just not happening.

[KarenNC]

I think we called it Punch bug in the 70s in NC. We also had a version called "Popeye" if you saw a car with one headlight out. With only one kid, we don't play it now <G>

 

Another big car game for me and my sister was a bingo type game on heavy card stock with little plastic windows that you'd slide over the picture to mark things you'd seen. There were pictures for things that you would see on the roadside---cows, horses, stop signs, traffic lights, etc. Haven't seen that in a long tiem.

Edited February 11, 2010 by KarenNC

[KidsHappen]

Yes, I remember. My kids and their friends still play it, but they say "Punch Buggy, no punch back." Driving them an hour to and from gym/dance, etc., the other mothers and I hear it all the way there and all the way back.

 

My kids also play "tweeter." Yellow cars and trucks are tweeters. Whoever has the most points when you get out of the car wins. DMV and Penske trucks do not count.

 

My kids say banana for yellow vehicles. :tongue_smilie:

[KidsHappen]

I have lived in a lot of places and I can't ever remember a single one where kids didn't play this. We loved Stevie Wonder but we had to explain to the youngest two why it was funny. It was our favorite super bowl commercial.

 

 

ETA: My hubby just informed me that he had never heard of this until our children came along. He thought it was a homeschool thing. :) He was born and raised in Chicago and spent his teen and adult years in FL.

Edited February 11, 2010 by KidsHappen

[Crystal in VA]

We played that game in Alabama, in the eighties. My kids like it, but we don't do the punching. They take all the fun out by hitting too hard and making someone cry. :angry: Over the years we have added bonus points for certain things like if it is an old one you get three points, if it is convertible you get two, five for an old convertible.

 

:iagree: We don't do the punching either for the same reason.

 

We also do bonus points for the old bugs. Hadn't thought about for the convertible models. Hmmm...that could really make our game more competitive. :tongue_smilie:

[TheCoffeeChick]

Grew up in the Rockies in the late 80's/early 90's playing "slug bug (color), no slugs back"

 

We also did the Cruiser Bruiser for awhile!! I thought we were the only ones to do that! LOL

 

My little brother tried to get a lot of different cars (Cop Bop, Jeep Beep, Truck Duck, ... anything really he could rhyme) to do the punching thing - I think he just liked to punch us. :tongue_smilie:

[gardening momma]

We always slapped the ceiling of the car with our hand.

[MamaT]

That's cute! :) My girls yell "purple car" and "pink car" when they see those. I think I'll need to come up with a name for them... But tweeter is darling!

 

When my now 11yo was about 2, we were at the library for storytime. The lady was asking the kids what different colors were. When she showed yellow, my ds yelled "tweeter!" We realized he thought the color yellow was called tweeter.

[melissel]

We played Punchbuggy in NJ in the 80s. We used to punch hard, but we were older by then :lol:

[MaMa2005]

Yes, I remember. My kids and their friends still play it, but they say "Punch Buggy, no punch back."

 

Same here.

[GaHadley]

we played, but we called it "spud" - i have no idea why, but thankfully it didn't involve hitting :)

 

You won the game if you saw "spud heaven" (which was usually a junkyard)

 

We played mid80s to mid 90s in GA :)

[Sophia]

My kids play punch buggy all the time! (without the punching part)

[JustGin]

Okay, I was watching Lost (or it may have been Amer. Idol) last night, and on comes a VW ad. They're punching each other, and shouting, "red one!" "blue one!" etc... So it hits me! They're playing Punch Bug!

 

Anyone else play this game in the 70's? Anytime you saw a VW bug, you shouted, "Punch Bug (and said the color of the Bug)!" and got to punch the person in the car with you. It was a VW Micro Bus or Vanagon, you said, "Slug Bus (color)!" My husband looked at me like I was INSANE when I was explaining the ad to him. He grew up in Minneapolis, I grew up in Seattle. Was it just a Pacific NW thing?

 

Yep, we played it and my kids grew up playing it. Only they said "slug bug...color"

or double slug bug...color for a vw van. Also if they saw a PT Cruiser, they used to holler "Pinch Crusier...color". We never allowed them to actually hit or pinch, so they would just say the phrase and they didn't seem to mind. :)

 

Edited to add: They always added "safe" at the end of the phrase to keep some one else from claiming the one they spotted. Oh and of course we are in the PNW.

Edited February 11, 2010 by JustGin

[5knights3maidens]

My kids do this alot...it drives me crazy!

[Guest janainaz]

I'm an Oklahoma-girl and it was popular there. We said something else (I can't recall right now), but we would hit the dashboard to the car (or the backseat headrest). I saw that commercial you are referring to the other day also. Oh, the memories......

[IsabelC]

I remember it as pinch mini and punch bug.

[IsabelC]

When my now 11yo was about 2, we were at the library for storytime. The lady was asking the kids what different colors were. When she showed yellow, my ds yelled "tweeter!" We realized he thought the color yellow was called tweeter.

:lol:

[lmrich]

My kids play it all the time. My youngest (who is a sweetie) hollers out "Hug bug" and hugs the person instead of punching them.

[SapphireStitch]

My brothers and I played it as kids, both in the family car and on the school bus. This would have been in the 70s and we lived in central Illinois. We didn't do the punch thing, though.

 

We just shouted "bug" when we saw a VW. A VW Bus was a "bug on a truck". There was some other name for the VW "Thing"...anybody remember those?

[lionfamily1999]

:lol::lol::lol:

 

'Punch Bug Yellow'

(my mom drives a yellow bug)

 

It was a super bowl commercial and DH and I both laughed -- we both remember it!

:smilielol5:

 

Yep, ds was also given a short bio on Stevie Wonder.

 

Here we said "punch buggy."

[BikeBookBread]

There was some other name for the VW "Thing"...anybody remember those?

 

YES! Weren't they kind of angular...like a shrunken HumVee? There's a REALLY COOL restored one that is owned by someone who lives close to us. It's been painted an amazing glossy orange.

[TMc]

'Slug Bug' was the name we used as youngsters. With our own youngins we would only 'Slug Bug' on old bugs.

 

Restraint was also taught, 'slug' had to be relative to age of receiver.

[cougarmom4]

Both dh and I played "slug bug" as kids...where you (playfully) punched someone when you saw a slug bug. (NM and CA kids)

 

Nowadays my kids (Utah) play, "Slug bug...what color is it?" Everyone in the car has to look around & try to find it and shout out the color. I guess you keep track of points...and the first one who sees the correctly colored one gets a point. I would find myself shouting it out--even when it was just dh and I. :D (Same way I still point out fire trucks...)

 

Sad to say, my kids ended up arguing & fighting about who saw it first....so the game got outlawed for a bit. Why do they have to each always be 'first' and 'right' about everything???

 

We do lots of games when we travel...ds12 has come up with some elaborate game where different kinds of trucks are worth more points than others...and has some running tally he keeps track of. A little insane, imo, but hey, it keeps him busy on the road.