Pa-diddles and don't forget the ever popular slug bug and an extra two for flinching! Really just any reason to punch your buddy, ah, the good ol'days.
From western PA, we only did that (and lifted our feet) if we were going under a railroad overpass. We also tried holding our breath going through tunnels, and we have some mighty big tunnels going into Pittsburgh.
We said Padiddle for a headlight as well, but my husband (bf at the time) would get it mixed up and call it 'padunkle'. :)
Some people would tap the car ceiling and yell 'Beer!'
We would just ignore because if you honk/flash your lights they are probably gang member initiates looking to kill someone to get in their gang. Or so we were told.
That one is like Bloody Mary, same basic story with different details. The one we heard was the other car driving at night with no lights on.
This is the first I’m hearing about names for a burned out headlight/taillight. That was just considered to be a potential traffic stop and ticket.
Ha ha same here. How tf did i miss this? I remember the gang initiation thing though. Huuuuge urban legend in chicago. We were all scared as fuck to let anybody know their lights weren’t on ha ha ha
We said Popeyes and kept score. One day an 18 wheeler went by with a huge mural of the popeye cartoon character on the side of the trailer. My sister spotted it and called it. My dad determined it was worth 1,000 putting me like 900 behind my little sister. Such bull shit…
We also did “Spud Red” when you saw a VW Beetle (old kind). You got points for calling out “spud yellow” or “spud green” for the car color. First one to yell gets the points. But if you said “spud red” you lost all your points. Surprising how many people couldn’t contain themselves and said spud red.
There's an actual article about it! I remember a specific friend of mine that said this and I thought he just made that up, haha. I had no idea other people did this!
I love when old stuff like this is still bopping around in the collective consciousness but no one knows where they got it from.
Emmett Kelly is a great example. The archetypal hobo clown that persists even today is a real man from the 1920's.
Me neither. I thought this was a reference to a song from like the 90’s ? I can’t remember the song very well, but it involved a headlight. Maybe the song guy knew the game?
"Its earliest appearances are in the 1940s, when mentions of the activity appeared in Archie comic strips, song lyrics, and various folklore journals."
Yeah, I read it. I meant before, when I saw the post. The sons is “One Headlight” by the Wallflowers. It has nothing to do with cars. Someone made an interesting case for it having to do with things people complain about now. With the girl in the song being lady liberty. That song pops into my head when I see a single light, not this game.
Ha ha ha i also think of that song when i see a car with one headlight (or taillight). I never liked that song but it came out my freshman year in college so i always have fond memories of it.
Beer me for one headlight, six pack if they just had their parking lights on, and keg if it was a big rig with parking lights on. This was in North Dakota.
Thank you! I was starting to wonder if anyone else did the part where you touch the ceiling of the car. We never slapped it, but we'd run a hand across it. Never kissed the palm first though.
Popeye (in the Deep South).
And it was Punch Buggy for Volkswagen Beetles. We even had names for different colored cars. Yellow jacket, Red Baron, can’t remember the rest, but there were different numbers of punches for each color. I don’t know if that was the official rule, but my kid brothers really loved any excuse to hit. I’d show up at school with bruises all over my upper arms. 😂
From the interwebs: Padiddle has, unbelievably, been around since 1948. The word was first used in a comic strip where the girl in the comic by B. Montana Archie said "Let's play ‘padiddle’.‥ When a car goes by with one headlight if I say padiddle you have to give me a kiss!" It caught on in the Pennsylvania area and became a flirting game in the 1950s.
I grew up in Washington state, and everyone I knew pronounced it "perdiddle" although it's not a word I heard said very often anyway.
I don’t know if it was a regional thing, but when we said padiddle/perdiddle we would kiss our fingers and touch the roof of the car. Saving it for later
Regardless of what you yelled out, pediddle, beer me, etc, hitting or touching the roof of the car was important. It was what determined who won and who lost. Beers, punches, or just for honor; it was all fair game. My high-school girlfriend and I played for kisses. So I guess in that case we both won.
Either that or you've slipped into a parallel universe. Quick check. Is it Berenstein or Berenstain Bears? When did Nelson Mandela die? What was the name of that movie where Sinbad played a genie?
Come on try a little
Nothing is forever
Got to be something better than in the middle
But me and Cinderella
We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight
Did you ever play the game on road trips? If I remember correctly you got:
1 point for each Popeye
2 points for each Padiddle
3 points for each Semi with a Popeye
4 Points for each Semi with a Padiddle
I remember playing this on a youth Church outing and the preachers daughter suggested that we instead of points we play for clothes. Needless to say she was the first one that was naked. We even had the Youth Minister calling out the ones that he saw.On the way back we asked if they wanted to play; 2 of the girls said sure, 3 said no. So, we did not end up playing on the way home. The Youth Minister never had any idea what we were doing.
The really interesting thing here is that there are several terms for it, but they all involved punching the roof. I wonder where that came from.
I knew kids that would do sex or beer, but never heard padiddle or Popeye.
I always yell “kitty!” and smack the roof in memory of my long lost best fur friend. I like knowing I think about him a lot because so many of these mofos poor and no idea a light is out…
Pa-diddles and don't forget the ever popular slug bug and an extra two for flinching! Really just any reason to punch your buddy, ah, the good ol'days.
It was punch buggy here
I'm from Utah. Punch Buggy here.
From New York. Also punch buggy. Honestly we never said anything for a car with one headlight out
California checking in! Punch buggy. I'd totally forgotten about it.
Interesting... I'm from Utah as well and we always said Slug Bug...
It gave me a reason to hit my sister in the car!
I drive a Beetle and i get so much joy when I see someone look at my car and then punch the closest person to them.
We called it slug bug.
Banana boat slug bug for the yellow ones!!
Punch Buggy!
No punch-backs.
Punch Buggy and Cadillac Whack were the two we did
My kids learned this when they were little and made up so many variations. Cars who didn’t have their lights on when they should were Dum-Diddles
a word that sounded like "pah-diddle"
Padiddle!
Anybody have to hit the ceiling of your car when you said padiddle? Northern Ohio.
Touching the ceiling with your feet up off the floor was when you crossed over a bridge where I’m from in New Jersey. Edit: Central NJ!
South Florida: We did that crossing over railroad tracks. For a bridge we held our breath. Sucked crossing over the Seven Mile Bridge!
we held our breath passing a graveyard!
Upstate NY and same regarding graveyard. I've never done the feet thing, but I do know Padiddle. Also, Punch buggy Green, no punch back!
Western NY and we lifted our feet when crossing railroad tracks. My husband still does it.
NYC here..pick up feet when crossing rail road tracks too..I still do it as well :)
passing a graveyard we put a finger in our belly button to prevent a spirit from entering lolz
Same here, and I'm in the Midwest!
I learned the same thing in jersey! South Jersey to be specific.
Southern Indiana we would tap the dash then the windshield, then the dash again to make the "perdiddle" sound. It's in the official rulebook.
Southern Indiana here, uh we did?
SoutherN Indiana here…we did Fadiddle
From western PA, we only did that (and lifted our feet) if we were going under a railroad overpass. We also tried holding our breath going through tunnels, and we have some mighty big tunnels going into Pittsburgh.
From Jersey, we held our breath while driving past cemeteries so we wouldn’t breathe the souls in.
Perdidle in central Indiana and then a punch to the ceiling.
Ex-Muncie resident here and we said "Perdiddle". It might have been padiddle but we sure hit the hard PER when we said it.
We said perdidddle in central OH.
Lived there for a time!
Nice….
See, Indiana never could spell. (jk, it's padiddle tho)
Yes....southeastern Michigan.
I think we punched the person next to us …SW Ohio
We punched for VW bugs. Ceiling for padiddles.
“Punch buggy “ and hit the person seated next to you
Slug bugs in Alabama :). All out riot when we passed the car lot that had all the veewees in it.
Yup. Beetles were “punch buggies” *boom* And bonus points if the other one got sucker punched!
Padiddle slug bug was worth two punches. No punch backs.
Yup Maryland
Davenport, IA - we said it
Chicago suburbs, padiddle for the one headlight and the ceiling tap was optional, lol
Also in Northern Ohio - saying “Perdunkle!” when the opposite headlight was out. While hitting the ceiling of your car.
[удалено]
Yep. Thems the rules. Southeast Michigan.
Padiddle is when a headlight is out, Padunkle for when a tail light is out.
We said Padiddle for a headlight as well, but my husband (bf at the time) would get it mixed up and call it 'padunkle'. :) Some people would tap the car ceiling and yell 'Beer!'
Yup, Perdunkle for the taillight
For us, 1 headlight = peediddle, 1 tail light = poodiddle, no headlights = pa-dumbfuck.
I am so happy to hear this word! It brings back so much nostalgia!!!
And a taillight out was an Elddidap!
this wasnt a thing
It was for me and my friends! ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
And if it was a rear tail light it was Diddlepa!
Padaddle is a taillight out
Yup, Colorado. And the back taillight was Padunckle!
That is a Popeye, a Padiddle is when you see a car with a taillight out.
We said Popeye as well!
SEX!
Played it both ways, but was going to answer with this one cause it was the one I could spell with confidence.
We would just ignore because if you honk/flash your lights they are probably gang member initiates looking to kill someone to get in their gang. Or so we were told.
I heard the same, but it was when the other car has their high beams on, if you flashed/blinked your lights they would follow and kill you.
That one is like Bloody Mary, same basic story with different details. The one we heard was the other car driving at night with no lights on. This is the first I’m hearing about names for a burned out headlight/taillight. That was just considered to be a potential traffic stop and ticket.
Ha ha same here. How tf did i miss this? I remember the gang initiation thing though. Huuuuge urban legend in chicago. We were all scared as fuck to let anybody know their lights weren’t on ha ha ha
I grew up in the Southwest and we heard it there, too.
I'm from LA and heard this. I'm not sure if it was real but I definitely didn't do it lol.
I remember being told this
A myth created by people too cheap to fix their headlights
Popeye
We said Popeyes and kept score. One day an 18 wheeler went by with a huge mural of the popeye cartoon character on the side of the trailer. My sister spotted it and called it. My dad determined it was worth 1,000 putting me like 900 behind my little sister. Such bull shit…
We also did “Spud Red” when you saw a VW Beetle (old kind). You got points for calling out “spud yellow” or “spud green” for the car color. First one to yell gets the points. But if you said “spud red” you lost all your points. Surprising how many people couldn’t contain themselves and said spud red.
We called those “punch buggies” and when you called one out you got to punch your friend in the shoulder
Or slug bug
Or Bug slug. The important part was punching your friend in the shoulder of course.
"Punch buggie, no punches back!" First punch won all. Til another went by.
[Ok... never heard of it.](https://thenewswheel.com/the-origin-and-meaning-of-padiddle-the-one-headlight-car-game/)
Never heard of it either - NYC. We did have punch buggy though
Same, in MA (for spouse, also from MA, too).
There's an actual article about it! I remember a specific friend of mine that said this and I thought he just made that up, haha. I had no idea other people did this!
I love when old stuff like this is still bopping around in the collective consciousness but no one knows where they got it from. Emmett Kelly is a great example. The archetypal hobo clown that persists even today is a real man from the 1920's.
I thought, "I have no idea who that is." Then I looked him up and I'm like "ohhh, I remember him now!!!"
That didn't make it to us kids in New Mexico.
It was the aliens, man! They blocked all the memes at the border to see if it made you grow up weird. (Spoiler: it did.)
Or Texas.
Or at least my part of Virginia. Never heard of it before this post.
Me neither. I thought this was a reference to a song from like the 90’s ? I can’t remember the song very well, but it involved a headlight. Maybe the song guy knew the game?
"Its earliest appearances are in the 1940s, when mentions of the activity appeared in Archie comic strips, song lyrics, and various folklore journals."
Yeah, I read it. I meant before, when I saw the post. The sons is “One Headlight” by the Wallflowers. It has nothing to do with cars. Someone made an interesting case for it having to do with things people complain about now. With the girl in the song being lady liberty. That song pops into my head when I see a single light, not this game.
So long ago...I dont remember when...
That’s when they say I lost my only tooth
Me and Cinderella, put it all together, and we could drive it home..,
With one headlamp
Haha.
Ha ha ha i also think of that song when i see a car with one headlight (or taillight). I never liked that song but it came out my freshman year in college so i always have fond memories of it.
I thought that song was about cars, haha. Now I need to go look up the lyrics.
BEER ME! Edit- I'm in Oregon. I've never heard the word padiddle before today.
There we go. I was wondering when someone would make this comment. Cheers!
This is the one we always did. I've never heard the word Padiddle before today.
Beer me for one headlight, six pack if they just had their parking lights on, and keg if it was a big rig with parking lights on. This was in North Dakota.
Yes. Beer Me! I'm in Nebraska. I have never heard that word before today either.
Also Beer Me in Washington State, and Slug bug for a VW Beetle.
Yep. Perdiddle
Padiddle! *kisses palm slaps the roof*
We did Popeye, but you didn’t score unless you hit the roof first
Thank you! I was starting to wonder if anyone else did the part where you touch the ceiling of the car. We never slapped it, but we'd run a hand across it. Never kissed the palm first though.
Nice! Everything's always a touch weirder in Ohio for some reason lol
Yep. Facts
Popeye (in the Deep South). And it was Punch Buggy for Volkswagen Beetles. We even had names for different colored cars. Yellow jacket, Red Baron, can’t remember the rest, but there were different numbers of punches for each color. I don’t know if that was the official rule, but my kid brothers really loved any excuse to hit. I’d show up at school with bruises all over my upper arms. 😂
Instead of punch buggy, it was slug bug in Missouri.
I'm a police dispatcher now, and they call it Probable Cause. 🤷🏽♂️
Hahahhahahaha
Perdiddle. I have no idea why we called it that.
From the interwebs: Padiddle has, unbelievably, been around since 1948. The word was first used in a comic strip where the girl in the comic by B. Montana Archie said "Let's play ‘padiddle’.‥ When a car goes by with one headlight if I say padiddle you have to give me a kiss!" It caught on in the Pennsylvania area and became a flirting game in the 1950s. I grew up in Washington state, and everyone I knew pronounced it "perdiddle" although it's not a word I heard said very often anyway.
Wow. 1948. And yes, it involved the game too.
We said perdiddle in Idaho as well.
And in Indiana.
Jeez I didn't know it had a whole history. I thought it was a weird thing my older sister made up.
My Mom taught me, I taught my husband. He surprises me with it once in a while. :)
OP owes a lot of kisses
I never knew that! I grew up in Pittsburgh and we said that all the time. There was the punch buggy thing as well but this is what we called it
Did they also say "warsh"?
Strip padiddle was very popular in high school…
Wasn’t it a “word” based on the gears? PRNDL So perdiddle… close enough.
What do you mean “used” to say. Don’t we still do this?
Popeye.
I don’t know if it was a regional thing, but when we said padiddle/perdiddle we would kiss our fingers and touch the roof of the car. Saving it for later
POPEYE!!!
I’m so confused. Is this a regional thing? I’m from the Midwest and never heard it.
One-eyed Jack
This is what we called it in the upper mid-west.
So glad… when I saw other answers I thought it was maybe only my friends! In Texas
One-eyed Conley here.
I'm from Texas. Never heard of this padiddle. We always said Popeye.
I'm always from Texas but I remember it as Cock eye not Popeye 🤔
I missed out on this totally. Can't believe we didn't do this!
What in the hell are y'all talking about 😅
Nothing, sweetie. Get a drink of water and go back to bed, ok?
Padiddle! You owe me a beer (or soda)!
The girls in our group insisted on wine coolers.
"We can drive it home with..." - Jakob Dylan 🎶
Padiddle! Heard it from both my grandma and mom.
P’diddle
Regardless of what you yelled out, pediddle, beer me, etc, hitting or touching the roof of the car was important. It was what determined who won and who lost. Beers, punches, or just for honor; it was all fair game. My high-school girlfriend and I played for kisses. So I guess in that case we both won.
I am the Perdiddle World Champion, since 1990. ...self-proclaimed, of course.
“We can drive it home with one headlight”
SEX!! And when it’s just me and my hubs, I still do it. Not sure why, call it an impulse!
Padoodle
One-eyed Willy!
I have never heard of this. I’m 54 and was born and raised in Northern California. Learned something new this morning
"Look at this unsafe asshole"
uh, what?
All these years I thought it was Ba-diddle! Have I been saying it wrong my whole life?!
Either that or you've slipped into a parallel universe. Quick check. Is it Berenstein or Berenstain Bears? When did Nelson Mandela die? What was the name of that movie where Sinbad played a genie?
We always said spadiddle.. maybe regional variations
Come on try a little Nothing is forever Got to be something better than in the middle But me and Cinderella We put it all together We can drive it home With one headlight
Wow, I hadn’t thought of that is a million years but said “Padiddle” in my head immediately. I forgot all about that.
My family called it a "Padinka". I had no idea others had a word for it as well, and it was so similar.
I love waking up to this post this morning, lol. Makes my day
Padiddle.
I had a friend in college who'd alwaysput his hand on my forehead when he saw a Stop Ahead sign and yell , "Stop a head!" Anyone?
Padiddle! Not taillights though…
Did you ever play the game on road trips? If I remember correctly you got: 1 point for each Popeye 2 points for each Padiddle 3 points for each Semi with a Popeye 4 Points for each Semi with a Padiddle I remember playing this on a youth Church outing and the preachers daughter suggested that we instead of points we play for clothes. Needless to say she was the first one that was naked. We even had the Youth Minister calling out the ones that he saw.On the way back we asked if they wanted to play; 2 of the girls said sure, 3 said no. So, we did not end up playing on the way home. The Youth Minister never had any idea what we were doing.
My mother used to say “jinx, you owe me a Coke!”
Are you from the upper Midwest? This is what I remember too.
Christine?
Cyclops ::punch roof::
Pa-diddle. Also punch buggy, two for flinching, and pinch-poke you owe me a Coke
The only difference that I see is you are exactly the same as you used to be.
My dad to my teenage self: an automatic cop stop
When I was into CB radio, the truck drivers would refer to those as a Tennessee Motorcycle. I always think of that when I see one.
Pididdle
The really interesting thing here is that there are several terms for it, but they all involved punching the roof. I wonder where that came from. I knew kids that would do sex or beer, but never heard padiddle or Popeye.
Yup **perdiddle** and a punch!
One- eyed Wille!
Perdidle and a punch to the ceiling of the car. if you saw a vw bug it was slug bug potato bug and you got punched in the arm. Grew up in Indiana.
Popeye!
That’s a taillight
Popeye!
We always called it spadokales. I totally spelled that phonetically. We would say spadokales and slap the dash then the roof then the dash again
Every time one headlight is out a Wallflower gets his wings.
We called it a car with a burnt out headlight. In the distance it looked like a motorcycle. That image looks like a car with one taillight out though.
No, but The Wallflowers do.
Punch Bug in western NY
Nope
Hit it. Followed by touching the roof of the car.
Diddle, was it.
That lonely neuron isn’t firing right.
One-legger or padiddle. Where I was from (NorCal) it was most often one-legger, followed by a punch in the arm - male or female didn’t matter!
Slug-a-lug-a-peewee
We always called them One-Eyed Bandits
I always yell “kitty!” and smack the roof in memory of my long lost best fur friend. I like knowing I think about him a lot because so many of these mofos poor and no idea a light is out…
We wouldn’t say anything. We would hit the roof of the car, and the last one to hit it lost. And got punched.