# What are "whites" in Little Feat's "Willin'"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 17, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609 "2014-10-17T19:35:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/21 "2016-04-30T04:18:50Z")
> [@Left\_Base](#):
>
> Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all of that stuff.
Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find:
```
- One forty-five caliber automatic
- Two boxes of ammunition
- Four days' concentrated emergency rations
- One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine,
vitamin pills, **pep pills** , sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
- One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
- One hundred dollars in rubles
- One hundred dollars in gold
- Nine packs of chewing gum
- One issue of prophylactics
- Three lipsticks
- Three pair of nylon stockings.
```
---
### Author:  [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/22 "2016-05-01T21:53:04Z")
> [@standingwave](#):
>
> Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find:
>
> ```
> - One forty-five caliber automatic
> - Two boxes of ammunition
> - Four days' concentrated emergency rations
> - One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine,
> vitamin pills, **pep pills** , sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
> - One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
> - One hundred dollars in rubles
> - One hundred dollars in gold
> - Nine packs of chewing gum
> - One issue of prophylactics
> - Three lipsticks
> - Three pair of nylon stockings.
>
> ```
You’ll need that for the Zombie Thread Apocalypse.
---
### Author:  [@Calaragorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calaragorn)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/23 "2022-03-02T09:45:21Z")
Dextroamphetamine. Also known as dexedrine. We called them crosstops. It is a milder speed than.meth
---
### Author:  [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/24 "2022-03-02T10:02:50Z")
I have always known Blues to be Valiums… 10 mg Valium.
---
### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/25 "2022-03-02T11:20:52Z")
since i live about 45 minutes away…
> **[Tehachapi, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi,_California)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
>
> Tehachapi (/təˈhætʃəpi/ (listen); Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning "hard climb") is a city in Kern County, California, United States, in the Tehachapi Mountains, at an elevation of 3,970 feet (1,210 m), between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Tehachapi is 35 miles (56 km) east-southeast of Bakersfield, and 20 miles (32 km) west of Mojave. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10 square miles (26 km...
---
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/26 "2022-03-02T19:58:05Z")
Hi @EinsteinsHund
I know I’m a tad late with this… but it looks like nobody ever nailed down “Blues”. What, with the Stones being English and all:
> **[Dexamyl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexamyl)**
>
> Dexamyl (or Drinamyl in the UK) was a brand name combination drug composed of sodium amobarbital (previously called amylbarbitone and its brand name Amytal) and dextroamphetamine sulfate (Dexedrine) within the same pill. It was widely abused, and is no longer manufactured.
> First introduced in 1950 by Smith, Kline & French (SKF), Dexamyl was marketed as an anorectic obesity medication as well as an anxiolytic and antidepressant medication that did not cause agitation. Racemic amphetamine sulfate ...
> In Britain during the early 1960s the drug was taken by “tired housewives”, and was also abused by youths who took excessively large doses and nicknamed the triangular blue tablets “purple hearts” or “blues.” This became a celebrated part of the Mod subculture. Dexamyl was the recreational drug of choice for main character of the film Quadrophenia, who eventually suffers from amphetamine psychosis. They were widely abused.
Indeed, “Blues” was still the generic name (or at least the one I knew) for amphetamine into the early 'eighties.
j
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/27 "2022-03-02T20:07:45Z")
Hey, I surely remembered this thread, it gets resurrected every few years, it seems. But it’s good when new info gets posted, so thanks @Treppenwitz! I haven’t seen Quadrophenia since first posting this thread, but I still remember the scene where they steal drugs in a pharmacy which must have been the “blues” in question, but I never knew what they really were. So it seems they were one of the several “Mother’s Little Helpers” the Stones sang about.
---
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/28 "2022-03-02T20:12:00Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> So it seems they were one of the several “Mother’s Little Helpers” the Stones sang about.
You know, I had always assumed that, but I just took a look at the lyric (see, I research my posts!) and it talks about “a little yellow pill” - so … I dunno. Maybe not.
j
---
### Author:  [@MonkeysBrother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeysBrother)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/29 "2022-03-02T20:12:19Z")
I know it’s a Little Feat song, but I love Linda Ronstadt’s cover. Maybe because I heard her version first (on _Heart LIke A Wheel_). OK, back to the drugs…
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/30 "2022-03-02T20:15:02Z")
There’s also a wonderful cover by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs from their “Under The Covers” trilogy, with Hoffs singing.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFOvduHzuBM)
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### Author:  [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/31 "2022-03-02T20:20:44Z")
An amphetamine and a barbiturate in the same pill? What a comically terrible idea.
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### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/32 "2022-03-02T20:38:13Z")
Uhhhh…you had to _be_ there, man…
j
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/33 "2022-03-02T20:38:31Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#):
>
> An amphetamine and a barbiturate in the same pill? What a comically terrible idea.
“Uppers and downers, either way blood flows” from 5:15.
---
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/34 "2022-03-02T20:42:58Z")
Maybe this commercial will explain things:
> **[Watch Saturday Night Live Highlight: Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers - NBC.com](https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/puppy-uppers-doggie-downers/3004208)**
>
> Watch Saturday Night Live highlight 'Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers' on NBC.com
---
### Author:  [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2022, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/35 "2022-03-15T07:33:29Z")
Within my memory, cross tops aka whites aka bennies were generally 5mg Amphetamine Sulfate, your basic amphetamine; but there were also bootlegs, so-called Mexican bennies–which looked just the same, little white cross-scored tablets, but were usually a good bit more potent.
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### Author:  [@justmeetee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justmeetee)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/36 "2022-03-26T19:15:08Z")
I always liked how Linda did it myself And I more or less lived that life in the late 70s early 80s
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/37 "2022-03-27T02:59:36Z")
As soon as I discovered Google Maps, I put in “Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah” …
… 28 hrs by car (or big rig, assuming sufficient whites).
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/38 "2022-03-27T17:21:07Z")
Brown. As in New Castle - heroin, not the brew.
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### Author:  [@spiderMuldoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spiderMuldoon)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/39 "2024-09-30T13:49:08Z")
As an expert drug addict from the 60’s and 70’s, the greens and blues are mixed formulas of dexedrine and milltown or Dexidrine and Ambutal. Different companies made different formulas: Dex & Milltown, speed & Tranquilizer; Dex &Ambutal, speed & barbituate. I loved them but they often provoked crazy times and they were taken off the market as way too dangerous.
I have been clean since 1981, but the memories are still there.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-whites-in-little-feats-willin/701609/40 "2024-09-30T14:18:14Z")
As an “expert drug addict”, wouldn’t your memories be less reliable, not more?
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