Punch buggy??

[billinstuart]

So I've been screwing around with VW's since the 60's..and I never ever heard of a punch buggy. I had to get a friend from New Jersey to explain the VW ads to me. Have I really been under a rock, or is this "punch when you see a VW" thing regional?

[Lynn]

It is VW's current, and IMO stupid, advertising campaign. It is base on some equally stupid game where people punch each other when they see some specified item.

[72jeff]

I think you may have been under a rock............I grew up (70's, 80's) playing "punch buggy" in the North East...........I went to school in Florida, and they all grew up playing it as well (we were all a bunch of vw nuts........I guess thats why I chose vee)

[cendiv37]

Where and when I grew up (upper Midwest, early 60's) it was called "Bug Slug". There was even a points system. When you saw any VW product (all air-cooled), you yelled out "Bug slug convertible" (or whatever) and socked the kid next to you in the shoulder. You didn't hit your big brother too hard lest you suffer the consequences later when the parents weren't present, but your friends at school got it pretty good. I don't remember writing down the points, but you accumulated them during any trip segment. "Bug Slug Karmann Ghia Convertible" was about the max points I think. Since the neighbor across the street had a Karmann Ghia parked in the driveway, there was often some jostling to be first out the front door. It was not just a family thing either but that's where we played it the most. It lasted a few years and then faded like most fads, but for years every once in a while someone got slugged just for the heck of it...

We did have a family only game (as far as I know) that we also played on trips which was a contest to see who could properly identify the big rigs the earliest (at the greatest distance). This game lasted into my college years, especially during trips from Madison to Colorado or Salt Lake to ski. There was no slug involved, and I don't think we counted points, but there were the little personal victories as that "Mack" you'd called out when it was a spec. on the horizon finally came close enough to see the bulldog on the hood.

The young amongst you need to remember that on long road trips before CD's, FM radio, iPods or DVD's, (and AC in our family cars) you needed a way to pass the time. At night the am radio became the source of entertainment (weather permitting) as you tuned in distant stations whose signals were reflected off the ionosphere. Lots of the local stations went off the air but the powerful stations kept broadcasting so we'd get KAAY Littlerock AK. while driving around in Upper Michigan.

Geez, I'm getting old!