The game/term arises about 1960 or so. It’s spelled in many different ways.
It was a padiddle to me in 1965.
Padiddle player of old here. I, too, knew exactly what your thread title meant. In our version (from 25+ years ago in the midwest, if you’re keeping track of how long this game’s been around and what part of the county it’s played in), calling one also earned you a kiss. I can’t believe I’m the first one to do this…
PADIDDLE!!
::Leans over and plants a big one on my hubby::
My mother taught it to me - the kiss version. She played in in high school and graduated in 1962. I believe the game is somewhat older than that.
The kiss version is a great flirt technique.
(The strip version sounds like a better one 
)
Talk about flashback. I was introduced to padiddle in the kiss form as a sophomore in HS by a senior in my choir class for whom I had major case of the hots.
Oddly enough, I thought of her just the other day. If our paths were to cross again, would that be karma with one headlight? 
My high-school friends played the “strip” version. I’ve always played it the same as Punch Buggy.
car with one headlight drives by
“PIDIDDLE!!! WHACK”
VW Bug drives by (in this case a blue one)
“PUNCH BUGGY BLUE!!! WHACK”
My s.o. and I play all the time. You also get a free hit for a misscall (one dim headlight doesn’t count).
I read this thread and went to lunch with him, and informed him that one tail light is a “pedonk”. His reply: “dammit! you’re not allowed to read that anymore. I don’t need them giving you any ideas!”
Slight hijack–
You might want to buy another bulb with the expectation the other one may go out soon. One night years ago, I stopped off at the auto parts store to replace a headlight bulb that burned out a couple of weeks before. Replaced the bulb in the parking lot. Got out on the road a minute later and stopped behind a bus … I notice the other one had burned out…
Hehe, my apologies to your SO!
I grew up in Baltimore county and I never heard of this until today - neither the word nor the game.
Guess I’m not as “with it” as I thought, huh?
We called it “perdiddle” and did the dash-dash-windshield-dash thing too.
BTW, Beauty Personified, I always thought of it as a paradiddle as well. Both of my siblings we’re drummers, and IIRC a paradiddle would be:
Dash-windshield-dash-dash, followed by windshield-dash-windshield-windshield, repeat. Or, to put it more simply: RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL %as needed. (R meaning Right hand and L meaning. … wrong).
I could be wrong, IANADrummer. 
My variation combines the kiss and hitting the ceiling thing. See - if no one is in the car to collect the kiss, you kiss your hand and hit the ceiling to save the kiss there for later. I’ve always had this image of pediddle kisses being stuck to the ceiling, and dropping (invisibly) down to unsuspecting passengers in the car.
Susan
We called it “perdiddle”, too. We did the “hit the top of the car” version of it, though… we weren’t all that skillful at the whole rhythm thing, which is probably for the best.
There was a whole point system that we used, but I’ve long since forgotten… cars netted you the lowest number of points, then pickup trucks, etc. Semi’s netted you the most, though.
My kids and their friends taught it to Hubby and me… they’re not much older than JimSox5, and we’re from the same area (I do believe he goes to the same school they did). Maybe he can refresh my everfailing memory. 
A high-school friend (circa late 1980s) introduced me to this. I could never remember the term “padiddle” so she claimed an acceptable substitue was the term “ohmies.” The way we played it was the person slapped the car ceiling and called “padiddle/ohmies” and you got to declare everyone else in the car owed you a coke/diet coke/Dr Pepper/Faygo, etc. (get it? “owe-mes!” It’s like “Jinx” with headlights.) We’d never played the kiss versions for the obvious reason that we were all unpopular females 100% unlikely to have a male for kissing in the car. I like that twist though!
I can imagine some guys out there playing two different versions, depending on who’s in the car.
A pair of guys and a pair of girls… Someone sees a padiddle, they hit the ceiling, then kiss one of the members of the opposite sex. (I suspect the group would have paired off, with a couple in the back and one if the front.)
A group of guys… Someone sees a padiddle, they kiss the ceiling, then hit one of their buddies as hard as they can in the arm. (I suspect, with every trip, one particular guy would tend to become “Target Number One”.)
Anyhoo…
(Another) Baltimorian checking in and I’ve NEVER heard of the term, let alone the game, before.
We called it a perdiddle if it was a headlight, a perdunkle if it was a taillight. One kiss for a perdiddle, five for a perdunkle.
Yay! Pediddle! My friends and I play this game, and we play strip. Pediddle is worth one article of clothing, pedaddle (our word for a taillight out) is worth two, and lights on trains, government vehicles (police cars, ambulences, fire trucks) are worth double their counterparts. Whoever calls it decides if everyone else has to get naked, or, if there is someone in the car you don’t want to see naked, you pick people one at a time. We don’t hit anything, but most of my friends hit the ceiling/dashboard for red and yellow lights.
I moved to Wisconsin in high school, and one of my friends taught this to me when she was driving me home. “Pediddle” was a burned out headlight and “pedaddle” was a burned out taillight. You were supposed to hit the ceiling or the dash, depending on which it was, but I don’t remember which hit when with which burned out light.