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The nouns fluffy dice, fuzzy dice and furry dice designate a pair of large imitation dice made from fluffy, fur-like material, designed to be hung inside a vehicle’s windscreen from the rear-view mirror, and sometimes considered emblematic of poor taste.

The following picture of imitation dice is from an advertisement for Grand Auto Stores, 1680 El Camino Real, Redwood City, California, published in the Daily Palo Alto Times (Palo Alto, California, USA) of Thursday 15^th November 1956 [page 16, column 6]:

THEY’RE A “NATURAL”!
Eye-catching and smart. Everybody’s rolling with ’em. Soft ’n fluffy!
CAR DICE 98¢

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the nouns fluffy dice, fuzzy dice and furry dice that I have found—with one exception, all these occurrences are from Californian newspapers:

1.1-: From The San Bernardino Daily Sun (San Bernardino, California, USA) of Friday 27^th April 1956 [page 50, column 4]:

Furry Dice Stolen

Imitation dice knitted from rabbit fur were stolen from the unlocked car of William Romero of 1096 10^th St., he reported to San Bernardino police. The loss was estimated at $5.

1.2-: From the following letter to the Editor, published in the Mirror News (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Saturday 19^th May 1956 [page 11, column 5]:

Silly Fad
Isn’t there a law against having your vision obstructed by something on your windshield?
Why don’t the police dish out some tickets to the screwballs who have six-inch rag dolls and two big four-inch square fuzzy dice dangling in front of their vision while driving in heavy traffic?
When auto manufacturers are trying to get more vision for drivers’ safety, why is this silly fad allowed to go on?
READER,
Los Angeles.

1.3-: From an advertisement for Ed’s Auto Supply, 1409 Fourth Street, San Rafael, California, published in the Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, California, USA) of Friday 26^th October 1956 [page 13, column 1]:

NOVELTY SENSATIONS
Fuzzy Dice 98¢
Shrunken Heads 1.19

1.4-: From an advertisement for Western Auto, 432 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, California, published in The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California, USA) of Thursday 15^th November 1956 [page 24, column 2]:

Car Top Material, 64 in. Wide $2.89 yard
Other new arrivals at Western Auto:
Furry dice, $1.29 pair
[&c.]

1.5-: From an advertisement for Everybody’s, a department store in Fort Worth, Texas, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) of Friday 14^th December 1956 [page 9, column 3]:

Special
FUZZY DICE
to hang in your auto
White, blue or black
with hanging ribbon
59¢ pr.
Auto Dept.—Street Floor

1.6-: From an advertisement for Western Auto, 432 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, California, published in The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California, USA) of Thursday 17^th January 1957 [page 2, column 4]:

SPECIAL VALUES
Fuzzy Dice, all colors ………. pr. $1.29
[&c.]

1.7-: From an advertisement for Cameron’s furniture and appliances, a department store in Fortuna, California, published in the Humboldt Standard (Eureka, California, USA) of Thursday 24^th January 1957 [page 9, column 3]:

FLUFFY DICE!
For your car’s mirror
Choice of colors.
Reg. 1.49 pr.
88¢

The following are some early comments on the practice of hanging imitation dice inside a vehicle—cf. also, above, quotation 1.2:

2.1-: From the column So They Tell Me, by Bill Soberanes, published in the Petaluma Argus-Courier (Petaluma, California, USA) of Monday 18^th February 1957 [page 5, column 1]:

WITH THE YOUNG SET

This columnist recently noted that the latest fad among the young set was the use of fuzzy dice to decorate their automobiles. Lloyd Warner has just informed this corner that these fuzzy dice are giving way to new shrunken heads. I recently took a look at one of these heads, and although they are made of rubber they look like the real McCoy. Wonder what the young set will think of next.

2.2-: From Hooray for “Goody”, published in The Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA) of Saturday 6^th July 1957 [page 6, column 2]—“he” refers to Goodwin Knight (1896-1970), Governor of California from 1953 to 1959:

We hope he and the California legislature set a pattern for the rest of the states by adopting a law prohibiting the use of those big, fluffy dice, baby shoes, rabbit tails or any other windshield ornaments that might tend to distract an automobile driver.
A windshield is to see out of, not to decorate.

2.3-: From the following letter to the Editor, published in the Mirror News (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Saturday 20^th July 1957 [page 7, column 4]:

Ignoble Fate
Sounds fair. The fluffy dice, the darling little argyles, the cunning baby shoes are all to be banished from the juggernauts, nevermore to grace the rear-view mirror.
Perhaps they’ll be displayed in museums as an example of the Age of Insanity. Alas, what an ignoble fate.
JIM SITTON,
Los Angeles.

2.4-: From The Minneapolis Star (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) of Friday 23^rd August 1957 [page 13A, column 7]:

Windshield Gadgets Cute… Or Signs of a Stupid Driver?
By Georgia Polzin
Minneapolis Star Staff Writer

Do you have a set of those big furry dice dangling from the rear view mirror on your car?
Or is a pair of baby shoes cluttering up your windshield?
Safety experts say they give you a pretty dim view of what’s ahead of your automobile—they take a pretty dim view of you, too.
Here’s how Forst Lowery, manager of the Greater Minneapolis Safety council, feels on the subject:
“There’s only one good thing to be said about hanging a pair of big, furry dice in the windshield: It lets other drivers know the car is being driven by a stupe who doesn’t care whether he can see where he’s going or what he’s going to hit.”
According to Lowery, these gadgets can obstruct the motorist’s view of a pedestrian or another car.
“And when the State fair gets under way we’ll see a lot more cars driven by yokels, urban and rural, who won a kewpie doll or a paper lei in the ring toss game and hang their trophy where everybody can see it—in their windshield.
“Dangling dice may not be the biggest traffic hazard we have, but you can depend on the kind of driver who hangs them in front of his eyes to be dumb enough to commit other driving stupidities.”