It was known as the “Buzzbee,” a flying disc sold in the 1970s. The Buzzbee disc was made by Altered Perception of Long Island. It sold for the price of $7.95. Their print ad featured the catchphrase “Catch-A-Buzz!” along with a comic strip they called ‘The Travels of Buzzbee!’ A typical cartoon featured two anthropomorphic bees: “Honey, I have to show you this Dno Pipe I Made A Flying Disc. Just Toss… It flies with Aerodynamic Precision. And Toke through the Honeycomb Screen…The disc provides the perfect windscreen.” The disc featured a bottom chamber with a screw cap and a top nozzle that made it fun to share disc fun and tobacco (or herb). Astonishingly, the disc has been reintroduced. The PUFF-N-PASS is the modern-day version.
It comes as no surprise to those of a certain age that the 1960-70s were full of dangerous and drug-culture toys. All it takes is a dance through the Top 40 or Hot Half Hundred radio charts of the day to understand why. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Doctor Robert” by The Beatles, “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane, “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35,” by Bob Dylan, “Journey to the Center of the Mind,” by The Amboy Dukes, “Cocaine” by J.J. Cale (also, Eric Clapton), “Gold Dust Woman” by Fleetwood Mac, “Mother’s Little Helper” and “Angie” by The Rolling Stones were just a few of the most “popular” drug-inspired songs.
In 1970 TIME Magazine published a guide to drugs and the young. According to TIME, in 1970, “at least 5 million youngsters in this country had tried marijuana. They’re not delinquents or from urban slums. They’re kids you know. Maybe your own. Like it or not, drugs permeate much of today’s youth culture. Children as young as nine or ten are singing songs of drug-induced highs, wearing clothing inspired by psychedelic dreams, speaking the jargon of the addict, and experimenting with dozens of possibly harmful substances.” Any wonder why Richard Nixon ran on a “law and order” campaign?
The creative influence of Psychedelia during the ’60s and the ’70s spread throughout nearly every aspect of society. Its colorful designs could be found in nearly everything: television, films, literature, art, music, clothing, jewelry, home decor, architecture, advertisements, clothing, furniture, and TOYS! And when it came to toys, the more psychedelic-the better. The Buzzbee is a good example, but certainly not the only example.
Does anybody out there remember “Blippy Moon Man Jack-in-the-music box” from the Mattel Toy Company back in 1968? If you don’t remember Blippy, you probably remember Mattel’s “Casper the Friendly Ghost” jack-in-the-box from an earlier era. Blippy was essentially Casper retooled. Now instead of the disembodied ghost of a long-lost child, Blippy was a spacey purple psychedelic space alien flower child. Blippy’s eyes matched the psychedelic pattern of his orange and maroon clothing and he periodically popped out of his very own Pop Art decorated organ grinder music box. The scenes on the sides of the metal box show Blippy gathering flowers with his “Mellow Yellow” girlfriend, playing ball with friends while floating “8 Miles High,” riding his own pet “Puff the Magic Dragon,” and taking a trip in his “Magic Bus” Space Scooter.
How about the Super Elastic Bubble Plastic by Wham-O? Introduced in 1970, this toy consisted of a tube full of a soft, pliable congealed plastic substance and a straw. The idea was to squeeze a pea-sized dollop of the mystery goop onto the end of the straw and blow to inflate the plastic into a semi-permanent psychedelic-colored bubble which could then be removed from the straw by pinching the hole closed, sealing the air inside. Chemically, the bubbles contained polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with ethyl acetate plastic fortifiers added. The acetone evaporated upon bubble inflation leaving behind a solidified plastic film. The size of each bubble depended on the amount of plastic used. The bubbles could be gently manipulated into different shapes, and stacked to make simple figures such as snowmen and balloon animals.
However, they were not as durable as regular balloons and could pop easily if overinflated, handled with too much force, or squeezed. This bizarre little blowpipe was cheap and popular and soon enough, controversial. Parents equated it to drug smoking, glue-sniffing, magic mushroom tripping, and any other negative connotation they could come up with. Super Elastic Bubble Plastic was eventually discontinued but it didn’t take long for others to pop up in its place like Amazing Elastic Plastic, Magic Plastic, and B’loonies.
The drug culture spilled over into the candy industry as well. Leaf made a candy they named Syko-Delic jaw breakers featuring “Syko-Centers.” As one Internet review said, “How long did it take to get to the center of the Syko-Delic ball? Probably the length of Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” Just in time for the bicentennial in 1976, General Foods released Space Dust, which was essentially pop rocks ground up into a fine powder. The candy came in a psychedelic planetary packaging featuring a wickedly stylized squinting moon with a trail of sparkly moon dust spewing from its mouth. Space Dust sold so well that stores couldn’t keep it in stock. By 1978, the Village Voice reported how sidewalk hustlers began hawking it on street corners at black market prices. As expected, parents quickly protested that the candy’s texture and name Space Dust were too similar to illegal drugs like Angel Dust. This led to rumors that the candy itself was unsafe, or that it was somehow a gateway for children to try drugs which, despite several attempts to re-brand it, led to the demise of the candy.
Then there was Albert’s Hippy Sippy, the Mac Daddy of all bad idea candy. Introduced in 1968, the candy took its name from its small, multi-colored pellets contained in a toy syringe. A button was attached to the tip of the hypodermic needle packaging featuring sayings like “I’ll Try Anything,” “Sock It To Me Baby,” “Bug Off,” and “We Sell Happiness.” The intent was to mimic drug usage in the hippie culture, with the toy ampoule being a reminder of heroin and the multi-colored candy being a reminder of uppers and downers. Newspapers and other media branded it a “junior junkie” kit. Hippy Sippy was immediately controversial and outraged parents and the public alike who claimed it normalized drug use. Hippy Sippy was promptly pulled from the market but is still remembered due to its cultural shock value. Today, the rare original Hippy Sippy packages sell for over $100 on eBay and the pins themselves will easily bring half of that.
Growing up in the 1960s and the ’70s, whether you followed the New Christy Minstrels or the Grateful Dead, whether you watched Hee Haw or Soul Train, you were surrounded by drug culture references. In our case, if you wanted to understand the game, you needed to be hip to the lingo. The same rules hold true to this day. So, consider this a nostalgic walk down memory lane or a public service announcement, your choice. Here are Drug Slang Definitions according to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
Marijuana: ashes, Acapulco anything, astro turf, assassin of youth, Aunt Mary, Black Bart, blonde, blue sage, bo-bo, bob hope, broccoli, bud, catnip, charge, cronic, cryppie, devil’s bush, dew, ding, ditch, doobee, dry high, fern, fu, giggle weed, golden, goody-goody, griff, harsh, herb, hooch, kush, laughing grass, lobo, loco weed, meg, mother, oatmeal, panama red, piff, rasta weed, red cross, reefer, root, salad, salt and pepper, scrub, sess, skunkweed, smoke, splim, stack, sticky icky, sugar weed, swag, torch, wake and bake, whackatabacky, pot, grass and weed.
Cocaine: bernie, All-American drug, angel powder, aspirin, Aunt Nora, beam, black rock, blanca, blast, blow, Bolivian marching powder, bouncing powder, bugle, caballo, California cornflakes, chang, coconut, coke, devil’s dandruff, double bubble, face, flave, Florida snow, gin, gold dust, happy trails, hunter, jelly, monster, mosquitos, nose candy, oyster stew, pearl, pedico, pimp, powder, rails, richard, rip, sauce, scorpion, serpico, sheets, shrile, sleigh ride, sniff, snowcones, society high, soft, star-spangled powder, studio fuel, toot, yoda, yolo, and zip.
LSD: Acid, animal, battery acid, birdhead, black sunshine, blue moons, brown bombers, chocolate chips, coffee, crystal tea, cupcakes, domes, don juan, dots, electric kool aid, Elvis, Felix the cat, flat blues, ghost, golden dragon, grape parfait, hats, hawk, haze, head light, loony toons, mellow yellow, mighty quinn, mind detergent, orange haze, owsley, pane, peace tablets, pearly gates, pellets, pink panther, potato, purple flats, rainbow, recycle, royal blues, smears, stamp, sugar cubes, sunshine, superman, tail lights, ticket, the ghost or the witch , wedge, and wedding bells.
Heroin: Heron, Al Capone, antifreeze, aries, Aunt Hazel, Bin Laden (after Sept. 11), black pearl, blue star, Bobby Brown, bombs away, bozo, brain damage, brown sugar, caca, Charlie Brown, cheese, dead president, diesel, dirt, dr. feelgood, dyno-pure, ferry dust, foil, galloping horse, gato, goat, golden girl, good and plenty, hard candy, Helen, herone, holy terror, horse, jenny, Jerry Springer, junco, little boy, mustard, muzzle, noise, nurse, peg, pluto, predator, pure, Rambo, rawhide, red chicken, red rock, reindeer dust, rhine, rush hour, salt, scag, scat, scissors, silk, skid, slime, smack, spider, stuff, sweet dreams, tar, thunder, tiger, tootsie roll, train.
PCP: angel dust: boat, busy bee, butt naked, cliffhanger, cozmo’s, crazy Eddie, cyclones, Detroit pink, devil’s dust, dipper, dummy dust, elephant trank, embalming fluid, fake stp, fresh, goon dust, gorilla biscuits, hog, illy momo, krystal, lethal weapon, mad dog, mean green, monkey dust, paz, peep, peter pan, pig killer, puffy, purple rain, rocket fuel, scaffle, slum, soma, star dust, stp, super, surfer, tic tac, tish, trank, wack, worm & wolf.
Crack Cocaine: apple jacks, baby t, badrock, beat, bebe, bill blass, bonecrusher, bopper, bump, candy c, casper, chalk, chemical, chewies, cloud, cookies, demolish, devil drug, devilsmoke, dice, dip, egg, famous dimes, french fries, fugi, garbage rock, glo, golf ball, gravel, grit, hamburger helper, hell, hotcakes, hubba, ice cube, jelly beans, kangaroo, mixed jive, nuggets, parlay, paste, patico, pebbles, piles, pony, prime time, rest in peace, roca, rocky iii, rooster, rox, scrabble, scruples, seven-up, sleet, smooch, soup, space, stones, sugar block, tornado, troop, twinkie, & wave.
Ecstacy: E, bickie, ecky, es, ex, X, pac man, purple pills, rolls, swedge, thizz. And unsurprisingly, steroids are called Arnolds, Abandominiums refer to abandoned row houses where drugs are used, Artillery is the term used for any equipment used to inject or inhale drugs, and fellow addicts are known as bedbugs.
There you have it. Consider yourself reminded, schooled or hipped to the drug culture hazards of being a kid in the sixties and seventies.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
