Sorry about this REALLY off topic post , but I was hoping I could get your help! ) and I thought it might be fun to put "slug bug" or something like that on personalized plates.

Help me out here, would you? Tell me what you've used!

Thanks!

Here in Ontario, Canada, it's 'punch buggie,' Erin. However, I've modified the rules completely.

If you're being chauffeured around when you see a Volkswagon, you must remember that the driver of your car is exempt from being whacked. Also, moms are *always* exempt!

Irene

I've heard punch bug and slug bug. We currently use slug bug, with "slug bug insurance" so we don't get hit back (I can't remember why this was done, it's been 8th grade since I learned the rules). I wish the driver was exempt in our game, but since there's only the 2 of us in the car, it doesn't quite work that way. Which usually ends up in me getting a sore arm/leg! Maybe when we have kids...

It was always 'Punch Buggy ______', where the blank was the color of the Bug you'd spotted.

LOL, my mom tells me that when she was growing up, one of her older sisters wanted to have a pink VW Bug with purple polka-dots. Or is that the other way around?? Seems to me that one of the first times I can remember visiting that same aunt and uncle, they came and fetched us in a sky blue Bug. No polka-dots...

Ah... memories

Melisma (unable to sleep, here under her Rock - and she's gonna pay for it, tomorrow, too...)

:rolleyes:

Chalk up another vote for Punch Buggy.

And yet another. (for Punch Buggy)

- Vicki

Off the top of my head, I'd say "beetle bug" but "punch buggy" sounds awfully familiar, too.

And cool! Take a picture for us

PJ
trying to imagine how you'd fit two grownups and five kids into a bug...

Here, and in Florida where my sister and nephews live, it's the color then "punch buggy," ie "Red punch buggy, don't punch back."

I've never heard those other versions.

I've never heard of the entire game. <g> Gee, sounds like we missed out on heaps of fun when we were kids. (I could have had endless fun bopping my kid brother when I was younger)

So, now I'm curious...why VW bugs in particular? Because they weren't common? Or because they were? <G> Some other reason entirely?

LabRat

You know...I don't know. All I know is that I had a heckuva lot of fun bopping my siblings--and not getting in trouble for it.

Thanks for sharing, you guys! I'd never heard the "punch buggy" version. Fun how different areas have used different things.

Aaah great memories of hitting my sister and not getting punished . We would always say "punch buggy (color)" then hit the person in question, and then scream "no punches back" so they weren't allowed to punch us back.

My cousin learned a lesson about punch buggys, though, because she hit me really hard when I was driving and it made me almost get into an accident on the freeway -- so we no longer play the punch buggy game.

I do think it is a regional thing. I've never heard it called anything other than a "punch buggy" .

- Laura

My kids played Punch bug, punch buggy, and slug bug. Sometimes they added the color, sometimes not. And there was definitely a "no punch back" call.

They used to be fairly rare, where if you were lucky, you'd see 1 a month. But since VW started putting out more beetles, the hits are fast and furious sometimes. I've been hit 5 or 6 times in one day, and that was no more than 2 miles from my house.

Oh, almost forgot a variation my husband came up with. A few years back, they started making Beetles with a greenish color called "Turbonium", which they advertised the heck out of. Turbonium bugs get an extra punch. So it's usually "*punch* Slug bug insurance *punch* Turbonium!"

I've always heard slug bug, but we never played the game.

As a side note, a friend of mine has a yellow beetle, which, when I saw in the parking lot of our building after I first met her, I knew instantly was hers. It fits her personality perfectly.

Samik.

For us, growing up, it was always 'punch buggy (color)' and of course 'no punch back'.

Which was all well and good and lots of fun too...except for the part where the neighbor across the street had a green VW bug. So every time we left the house or returned from somewhere, one of us got hit. (Except mom, who was exempt, until recently <eg>. Apparently once the child reaches 18, the mother is no longer exempt - according to my sister. ) My sister and I had a large number of bruises on arms and legs courtesy of each other growing up...good thing neither ever got seriously injured because social services would have had a field day with all of our bruises once we got to the hospital.

Jill

We always had "punch buggy (color), no punch back", too.
ah, good times

and DocJill:

ROTFLMAO! thanks for the laugh!

~shells

If you're still taking votes (and I've seen a picture of the car, neiner, neiner, neiner ), add another one to the "Slug Bug" column.

I've never heard Punch Buggy before, but it seems to have been pretty common, based on the number of responses here!

Oh, and considering Erin's van has No1FoLC as the license plate, I think she definitely needs to make sure she finds something good for this one. <g>

Kathy (who really, really wanted to choose CHUMPY for her last car, but my husband overruled. <g>)

I've never heard of punch bug, it was always 'Slug bug; no return. I got it first!' and my kids still play that to obsession. My six year old has added jeeps, speedy Mustangs, Hummers and 'headless cars' to the mix.

Enough to make me want to scream sometimes with four or so kids *and* my husband playing at the top of their lungs.

Missy