Jeff from Huntsville, Alabama, remembers playing a game on family road trips called padiddle. If you see a car at night with one headlight out, you say “Padiddle!” The first person to say it gets to punch a fellow passenger. His wife’s family played a variation in which the winner was entitled to a kiss. There are various rules for the game and various names, including perdiddle, perdunkle, pasquaddle, cockeye, cockeye piddle, dinklepink, and popeye. There’s also the slug bug version that specifically involves spotting a Volkswagen. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Padiddle, the Hitting-Each-Other Car Game”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Jeff Simpson.
I’m calling from Huntsville, Alabama.
This is kind of an odd thing. About 60 years ago, when my parents were driving the kids around in the backseat, and it’s at nighttime, on the freeway, we would play a game. And if you ever saw coming back at you a car that only had one headlight, whoever saw it first would yell, padiddle, and that would enable you to slug your brother or sister in the shoulder. And so my curious question is the word padiddle, if there actually is such a term for a one-eyed car. And just that’s really about it. Is there such a term, or were you the only family playing that game?
Is that what you’re wondering?
No, I’m pretty sure everybody, you know, lots of people played the game. They might not have called it the diddle, but it’s like when I described this to my wife, her response was, well, when we did it, they would kiss somebody.
Yeah, that’s what you do with your sweetie when it’s just you and your sweetie, right?
Right.
You don’t have a sweetie. I guess you just hit the person next to you.
Well, brothers and sisters, it has to be a punch.
Right.
Right. Or brothers and brothers, right?
Right.
Yeah, this game goes back to what, the 1940s? Easily, surely older than that, though, as long as cars have lost headlights.
Right, right. Although you wonder if there was a one-eyed horse version back in the day.
Yeah, right. Or maybe a one-eyed horse named Pediddle or something. I’m not sure we know the origin of that word, but boy, are there a bunch of variations. Perdiddle and peduncle and pasquaddle. And cockey and cockeyed peddle. Piddle as well. And Popeye. I’ve seen that one too. And Dinkle Pink.
Dinkle Pink. Nice.
Oh, that’s a good one. Yeah, it’s one of those sort of a family word that gets passed down and passed around. And so when you see the one-eyed car coming at you, you can kiss the person next to you. You can punch the person in the arm. And some people smack the roof.
Okay. And then there’s the slug bug version, which is the VW bug, which is similar things. Usually that one’s punching because it’s got slug right there in the name. If you see a Volkswagen, or does it have to be a Volkswagen with a Padiddle?
No, just the bug itself.
Just the bug. Some people say not the van. Some people say yes to the van. So who knows?
So this just sounds like a great way to pass the time on one of those long drives.
Well, it was, and it certainly kept the kids busy in the back, that’s for sure.
Well, that means everything, doesn’t it?
Yep. I wonder if people play it as much now with, you know, iPads and iPhones.
Yeah, DVD players built into the car and all that. I don’t know.
Yeah. Maybe. Kind of odd.
We do. We play license plate games in the old. We play all the old games that you used to play in the 50s and 60s.
I bet you play word games with the license plates.
Yeah, we do the word games when you’re driving. You find, in alphabetical order, words on signs beginning with all the letters of the alphabet.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah, or just looking at somebody’s license plate and making a word.
License plate looking.
Yep. Yep. That’s the most that we know. Hope that helps.
Yeah. Thanks for this drive down memory lane.
Okay. Well, thank you. It’s been a pleasure talking to you both.
All right. Take care now.
Take care.
Okay. Bye-bye.
Badiddle is another one.
Badiddle. With a B. Badiddle per diddle per diddle. We’re going to get a ton of calls about this. Every single time we talk about this, the phone lights up, the email blows up, Twitter goes crazy, and by all means, send it all. We’re just interested in variations and other names and what you might do besides kissing or punching.
Right.
Right. We always learn something new.
Right, yeah. When that happens. That’s the show, right? You and I are…
That’s the show. We’re the two students and everyone else are the teachers.
It’s so true. It’s endless. Call us, 877-929-9673, or you can send your comments to words@waywordradio.org.
