The 'JINX' game and other popular games

I always find it humorous, the fads that run through with our kids.
It seems as if they are recycled from our days as kids, some are perhaps 'updated' to fit with the current times, but many are just like the games we played as children.

One that is similar to when I was a kid is the "JINX" game.
You all know when you are supposed to say "JINX", right??

OK, for those who have forgotten, if you and your friend say the exact same thing at the same time. Then the first person to say "JINX" is the "winner". I recall the "winner" is entitled to a soda.

My kids have started the "JINX" game with a little twist (At least I don't recall this twist from my childhood)....... the person who says "JINX" first then starts to count - the "loser" is supposed to say "STOP", which stops the counting. Apparently, the numbers represent the number of sodas the "winner" is entitled to - I guess today's games have been "SuperSized"!

Another game the kids are currently playing is the Spot-A-Special-Car-First-and-then-Tag- Everyone-Else-Because-They-Didn't-See-It-First Game. Whew, that's a mouthful. In our case, the Special-Car is the VW Beetle or Bug. The first person who sees it says "XXXXX Slug-bug - No Tag Backs" and starts slapping everyone else while saying it. Oh, the XXXXX represents the Color of the spotted Beetle. I didn't know just how popular the VW Beetle is around our parts until the kids started playing this game. And of course where do they play the game? You guessed it - in the car, while I am driving.

The sad thing is, now I will be driving alone around town or on my way to work, and I will see one of those blasted cars and automatically think (or sometimes even say out loud) "Yellow Slug-bug - no tag backs". If Scott is in the car with me, we will play against each other. Sometimes we'll "play" with our co-workers, but then we usually get very strange looks.

And when my sister and her family visited, even their kids were familiar with a variation of the Slug-bug game (Different Car, and instead of "Slug Bug" another term was used).

Now, I really don't remember the Slug-Bug game from my childhood. Do you?? One game I do recall is "PiDiddle / PiSquattle". Do you remember that one? Played at night, looking for cars with a headlight out. When we played it, the guys would yell out "PiDiddle!" and go and kiss one of the girls. The girls would call out "PiSquattle" and slap one of the boys. Hmmmm - I certainly hope it is a LONG time before my kids start on this one........