When we were little and would go on family road trips, and there were no video games (what!?) or in-car DVD players (gasp!!), my sister and I would count Volkswagen bugs to pass the time. Sun Bugs, the bronzy-gold metallic ones, were worth 2 points. Lucky, the one who spotted one of them!
In my 'tween years I was introduced to a stealthier game: spotting out-of-state license plates. First to see one of these babies would sock her friend hard on the arm with a triumphant call, "Out-of-state! No return!" the "no return" part meaning, "no hitzees-backzees". The bummer was you'd always lose the first round before you even knew you were playing.
I guess as all things are like to do, the games morphed over time, and a couple of years ago I learned of a rendition called "Slug Bug" where you hit (slug) someone in the arm when you are first to spot a VW bug. Volkswagen has since embraced the craze, tweaking it to call awareness to their entire line of vehicles with an ad campaign that demonstrates calling out any VW model by its color whenst delivering the blow. "Green one!" "Blue one!"
We Flahertys tried to get a little creative with the game using our fondness of rhymes, AND to increase opportunities for gratuitous violence between us. (Please know that is a joke...) We added:
The "SUV Shove"
The "Cop Bop"
The "Saturn Pattern" which involved rhythmic poking
The "Beamer Femur," a good knuckle punch to the leg for a BMW sighting
The "Jeep Jab" and
The "Kayak Smack" (rare, but my personal fave)
Big Daddy wanted to add one for trucks, but I told him I had a headache...
Anyway, this was a game for playing in the car. Until one day, as we were coming out of a Starbucks we spotted two friendly Sheriff's Deputies enjoying a coffee break. Two feet from them, J-Boy reaches up to enthusiastically wonk me on the head saying, "Cop Bop!!" Can you say, "mortified"??? We scurried to the car where I explained that it was GAME OVER and why. We agreed to go back to counting VW Bugs for points--convertibles would be worth 2.
Sadly, the game has fallen out of favor. Part of the reason could be that somewhere along the line silver convertibles became worth 5 million points instead of just 5. We have one that lives down the street from us. Everyone knows it's there, and the game could end in two blocks if it is in the driveway and someone in the car decides to play and calls it out.
Too funny! This post reminds me of a game we girls used to play to pass time when we traveled around the state as members of the women's tennis team in college...we'd play a version of the alphabet game where everyone had to come up with the name of a song, TV show, movie, or musical artist/band for each letter of the alphabet (one category at a time). We kept going 'round in a circle, one letter at a time, and if someone couldn't come up with an answer that fit their letter, they were out. The game could last for hours, and sometimes we just gave up because took so long to get rid of everyone and declare a winner. It was a dumb game, but it was better than listening to the talk radio our coach listened to for hours at a time on our road trips!
Posted by: Jenny Petricek | June 07, 2011 at 08:35 PM
This TV ad from Volkswagen is hilarious! It shows how one can become closer to different people by playing "punchdub." Hahahaha! I used to do try and spot Beetles when I was young, whenever we went out for a drive. I think it's their appearance that makes them stand out on the road. They look quite different from other car models.
Posted by: Leisa Dreps | February 04, 2012 at 10:08 AM