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Seeing that some T-bird owners hang them from their rear view mirrors got me thinking about what the origin of fuzzy dice is. I could find no conclusive story. I saw quite a few people from the fifties say they don't recall them being a trend at all. Then I came across an interesting post in a Buick forum that rings true:
"Seems like knit dice came in during the mid 50's.
At least that's when they came into prominence at my school.
The dice were a simple love offering from your girl friend and in a small way marked you as going steady once they were hung in the car.
In almost all cases, the dice were hung on the interior rear view mirror and in areas where the cops busted you for obstructed vision due to the dice, they would be hung from a dash knob.
The girl friend would knit them herself, usually from fuzzy angora.
In the color of your choice sometimes, but most times in the color of her choice.
Many times, the colors were the school colors.
The usual size was 3" square and it took two skeins of one color and one of another to make a set of matching dice.
Matching as in; red body, white dots.
Some girls would buy two skeins of yarn, one red, one white for example and make a pair of contrasting color dice.
IE: one red body, white dots and the other a white body with red dots.
Most times there was enough yarn left over to make a mirror 'muff', a simple knit band of alternating colors looking a bit like a modern day sweat-band.
This would stretch and go around the small interior mirrors in the cars of the day - in my case a cherry 50 Ford sedan, lowered, pipes and all.
For a while there, a few girls were making dice 6" square, but the 3" square ones were big enough and small enough at the same time.
Pep Boys and similar places started making dice out of colored foam with printed black dots, but not many bought those.
Those who did were looked down upon because the for-real knit dice had a meaning and store-bought dice didn't.
The rules were simple.
If you had a girl friend, sometimes you'd get a pair of hand knit dice and sometimes you wouldn't.
There was a certain depth to the relationship required before it got to the dice stage and like most things it was the girls who decided.
Although with some girls, it was no dice no matter what....
"
__________________
"Seems like knit dice came in during the mid 50's.
At least that's when they came into prominence at my school.
The dice were a simple love offering from your girl friend and in a small way marked you as going steady once they were hung in the car.
In almost all cases, the dice were hung on the interior rear view mirror and in areas where the cops busted you for obstructed vision due to the dice, they would be hung from a dash knob.
The girl friend would knit them herself, usually from fuzzy angora.
In the color of your choice sometimes, but most times in the color of her choice.
Many times, the colors were the school colors.
The usual size was 3" square and it took two skeins of one color and one of another to make a set of matching dice.
Matching as in; red body, white dots.
Some girls would buy two skeins of yarn, one red, one white for example and make a pair of contrasting color dice.
IE: one red body, white dots and the other a white body with red dots.
Most times there was enough yarn left over to make a mirror 'muff', a simple knit band of alternating colors looking a bit like a modern day sweat-band.
This would stretch and go around the small interior mirrors in the cars of the day - in my case a cherry 50 Ford sedan, lowered, pipes and all.
For a while there, a few girls were making dice 6" square, but the 3" square ones were big enough and small enough at the same time.
Pep Boys and similar places started making dice out of colored foam with printed black dots, but not many bought those.
Those who did were looked down upon because the for-real knit dice had a meaning and store-bought dice didn't.
The rules were simple.
If you had a girl friend, sometimes you'd get a pair of hand knit dice and sometimes you wouldn't.
There was a certain depth to the relationship required before it got to the dice stage and like most things it was the girls who decided.
Although with some girls, it was no dice no matter what....
"__________________
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