"Padiddle drivers of America"; and "beater" (= jalopy)

[Alice Faber]

Gerald Cohen wrote:
>
>    Note also "beater" (= jalopy) in the last two sentences--a term I
>don't find
>in either HDAS or Jonathon Green's dictionary of slang. Do these two
>terms deserve recognition as standard slang items, or is their use
>too limited for this?
>

Well, "padiddle"'s been around for years. When I was in high school
in the late 60s, there was a complicated game involving padiddles.
OK, maybe it wasn't all that complicated. But, if you were in a car
with other kids and noticed a car with one headlight out, you yelled
out "padiddle". The first person to do so got to hit somebody else.
Until this piece, I've only ever encountered the word in the context
of this game.

I first encountered "beater" a few years ago, from people living in
Chicago. I don't know how limited it is.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963