VW Beetles

Herbies. Love bugs. Bugs. And, the all-time favorite...SLUG BUGS! Oh man, gotta love a slug bug! And suddenly, there are a plethora of them in Iowa City. Now, maybe it's just me lapsing into my childhood in a time of extreme stress, but I have recently been enjoying a near daily game of slug bug...no returns with my daughter and my soon to be daughter in law. It began just between me and Cheeks. My daughter honestly couldn't understand why we kept punching each other and yelling colors at each other. I tried being my usual sarcastic self and told her that we really hated each other and were disguising our fights with a pretend game. This backfired immediately with her trying to run interference between the two of us. So, I explained the game to her...in great detail. Apparently, I managed to NOT teach her this game years ago and neither did her brothers. I'm terribly remiss in my maternal duties, obviously. At any rate, now she's a whiz at spotting the damn things. My arm has had several bruises from her reaching between the seats and whacking me, and I believe the constant ringing in my ears is due to her shrill shrieking of "Slug Bug (fill in the color here)...no returns!" about two inches behind my head. Since I'm the driver, I'm allowed to not have to touch the others for it, just be the first to spit out the damn line with the correct color of bug. So far, I think I'm behind about 20 slug bugs to my own child and about 8 to Cheeks.

Which brings me to my next point. After one spotting of such a bug and actually being the first to notice it and the one right behind it next to us, I wondered about some stuff:

1) The people that buy these cars...did they used to be as enthusiastic slug bug-ers as my daughter, and that's why they bought one?

2) Once they do own one, when they notice a car with appropriately aged and informed children in another car in the next lane, do they chuckle to themselves, saying, "I bet those kids are just whaling on each other because of my car?" (hysterical, maniacal laughter by said owner) I know I would.

3) If the answer to either or both of the above questions is "no", then are these vehicle owners simply too old to appreciate the fun of being a slug bug-er? Or is it possible that these motorers' parents/siblings/friends/whatever NEVER educated them to the game? Are there people out there, from this country, who have never been exposed to this cultural phenomenon? Is it possible to get too old to enjoy a good game of slug bug?

I'm not sure I want to know the answers. For starters, the idea that our society has gotten so technologically adavanced that games like slug bug, zip, and license plate bingo have gone by the wayside is truly scary. No wonder there are so many kids being overmedicated, over scheduled, over stimulated, and under satisfied. Of course, those same children are the ones who grow up to be over achieving, type A personalities who only talk to their families and friends via Blackberry's and palm piloted 'quality time'. Also, I'm not sure I like the idea that people are allowing this cultural piece of history to die out from lack of exposure. What does that say about our priorities? Our parenting? MY parenting? Cripes, if there are worse parents out there than me...and I don't mean the ones that boil their kids because they wet the bed...then everyone should have to get issued a license to have sex.

As for me, I'm going to take advantage of teaching Cheeks to drive, giving Link (my middle son) driving practice, and begin allowing King Rat to drive places when we go as a family just so I can keep a better eye out for the little critters...the slug bugs, I mean.

Speaking of which...SLUG BUG YELLOW! NO RETURNS!