It’s hard to get used to driving down the road without the shock of an unexpected punch in the shoulder and hearing the words, “Slug-bug, no hitbacks.”

For a week while a grandson was visiting, that was a regular occurrence. I tried to play too and get even but I didn’t stand a chance. I had to watch the road, and my grandson could spot Volkswagen bugs down side streets, in driveways and even in parking lots.

Sometimes, when playing against both me and his grandma, he beat us at least two or three to one in slug-bug hits and with no hit-backs, of course.

When driving him back to meet his parents in Tulsa, I was already down several hits to nothing when my grandson suggested we play Alphabet. I didn’t know what the game was but since it didn’t involve getting hit in the shoulder, I agreed to play.

The game, he said, was to begin with the letter A and find a word which begins with A before moving on to the letter B.

Seeing some horses, I suggested the word “animal” to get the game started but was quickly told we had to find a word or name on a sign, vehicle or somewhere along the road which begins with A.

Once we had that cleared up, it took almost no time at all to find the words “at” and “bridge.”

We went through the letters of the alphabet at a pretty fast pace. My grandson was even impressed at how good I was at picking out names and words along the road which began with the appropriate letter.

“I work with words,” I told him.

Being too cheap to pay tolls, I stayed on U.S. 412 Highway rather than taking the turnpike. I’m not sure if taking the back roads was a good move for the game or not. It did make it a bit harder to try to read signs along the road while staying safe on a small twolane highway.

Anyway, we progressed through the alphabet as we traveled the scenic route to Tulsa. We did well at the Alphabet game until we came to the letter Q. We rolled along for miles without finding a quiet zone, quick sand, quail crossing or anything with the letter Q. Finally, so we could move along, I had my grandson pick up a 25-cent piece from the console and read it. Sure enough, the words “quarter dollar” were there, and we progressed to R.

From there, we flew through the remaining letters of the alphabet until we came to the letter X. What words begin with X? It was unlikely that we’d see any signs advertising xylophones. Not many streets are named after Xerxes. Fortunately for us, my temporary subscription to XM radio hadn’t expired, so we cheated just a little to keep the game going.

By the time we were through Locust Grove, we were up to the letter Z. I thought we’d be done in no time, but we couldn’t find anything that begins with the letter Z — no speed zones, zebra crossings or roaming zephyrs. And where is a work zone when you need one? There were none.

After rejoining the divided highway and traveling for miles with no Z words, I was debating about giving my grandson the appropriate chapter in my Bible to find the name of the father of the apostles James and John.

Resisting temptation, we finally arrived at Tulsa and, you guessed it, a work zone. We had finished the game and with several miles to spare. The best part was that I think the game was only interrupted once for a surprise slug-bug with no hit-backs.

I kind of liked the Alphabet game and when the return trip by myself got a bit boring, I played it again, finishing with the speed zone sign in West Siloam Springs. Yes, I used the quarter and XM radio, but I needed it to keep going.

On Sunday, Mrs. Griz and I played Alphabet on the way home from church. The letter X was a problem and would have been next to impossible without using misspelled words like Xpress instead of express. But we got it done by finding XL and only exchanged one or two slug-bugs along the way — I do worry, though, that someone might witness a slug-bug hit and report us for domestic violence.

Now, I’m thinking of some other possibilities for the Alphabet game. Perhaps you could play it with the newspaper, reading it through for words which begin with each letter — in order, of course. And, lucky for you, I included a few letter-X words in my column so you can finish before reading the classifieds.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by e-mail at rmoll @ nwaonline .com.