Punch Buggy!

Last year my children, while on a trip with some other children, picked up the saying that comes after seeing a Volkswagen beetle: "Punch Buggy, no punch back!"

This is accompanied by a punch in the arm by the beetle spotter. I'm told this was done during my childhood era, but I never experienced it and never knew about it.

After enduring this for some weeks I joined in the fun. The problem was that I was the driver and to punch those in the back seat I had to reach my arm back in hopes of connecting with a body while keeping my eyes on the road. My children, who are usually in the backseat, got very good at dodging my reach and then would lean up and punch me shouting, "Punch Buggy, no punch back!"

I had more success when someone else was driving or was riding in my passenger seat. Unfortunately, for me, those people were usually my friends and so to protect themselves they too would join in the game. One of my friends was quite a little puncher and my poor arm felt all black and blue like back in the day when my brother punched me, so I decided that this game was getting a little too violent. I came up with just yelling, "Punch Buggy!" upon spying the beetle and being rewarded with a point. At the end of the day the person with the most points won. Thus the punching was taken out of the game.

The problem with this little game was that I began yelling, "Punch Buggy!" even if no one was in the car. This has gone on now for over a year, and I'm becoming insane over this little game. Beetles are everywhere. They are here in Florida. They were everywhere in Indiana. We now have a neighbor who has one that he parks in his driveway every night so we all try to be the first to yell, "Punch Buggy" when we drive out of our street daily.

After I returned from my Indiana vacation, I declared a cease-fire. I said that was it. No more yelling, "Punch Buggy!" I couldn't stand it anymore. I was doing it inside my head now instead of yelling it out into an empty car. It just had to stop. For me at least. I would not be participating in anymore Punch Buggy games, and I didn't want to hear anyone yell it within my car. We were done. Finished.

Last night I sat down to watch my recordings of some Gene Simmons Family Jewels which I have saved on my DVR. This episode was the one where Gene takes his son Nick out to buy a car. Gene is, of course, giving advice on salesmen and how to handle them. His son, of course, is not listening. 

They arrive at a dealership that sells Volkswagen cars, go inside, with Gene explaining to his son how the dealers are going to rush over and start right in on them. In the middle of his advice Nick shouts, "Punch Buggy!" and he gives his father a punch. The camera pans to a beetle car on display. Gene ignores him, starts again with the advice, and Nick spies another beetle on a poster on the wall and shouts, "Punch Buggy!" this time giving his father a little harder punch. At that point, Gene rubs his shoulder, whines, and gives up.

I laughed myself silly and had to rewind it a couple of times to watch the scene over again, and I realized right then and there that I'm doomed. This is one of those "things" that my kids are going to remember from their childhood. One day they will have their own children and a beetle will drive by, and they will reach back and give their children a thump on the arm and yell, "Punch Buggy!"

 And if they don't.....their grandmother certainly will!