"SHOTGUN," someone screams out.
For the last few months, this has been a big thing at the Phillips' house. Whether we are on our way to school, the grocery store, or out to eat, Madison and Gibson are quick to say, "SHOTGUN!"
This past Sunday as we were leaving church, one of the kids yelled it, and then the other one chimed in with "No, that's not the rule." I got so tickled because I had no idea there was a set of rules for Shotgun.
I said, "Rules?"
My husband replied with, "Yeah, we had all kinds of rules growing up, especially in college."
So here I am just thinking, "What kind of rules can you have for Shotgun?" At my house, it was just the first person that yelled out the word got the front seat. What more could there be?
He responded with, "You can only call shotgun when outside. Then, if you go back inside after you yell the word shotgun, you lose your chance at it. If you use the word shotgun in context in sentence form, you get status points." And then he gave a few more rules.
I needed further explanation of what 'sentence form' was all about. I soon found out if you can use the word 'shotgun' in a sentence, such as "My dad brought his SHOTGUN on his trip" or something crazy like that, it sort of earned you some bonus points (which mean nothing, I might add) in getting the front seat.
After this conversation, I got to thinking. I wondered if there were really some rules for the little game Shotgun. So, of course I go looking on the Internet. I found a few sites that give some great information about the origin of the phrase, such as a person used to carry a shotgun to guard the driver of a stagecoach and they would ride beside the driver. They would refer to themselves as 'riding shotgun'.
There are more rules than I cared to know, but some of the crazier ones I got from a website Bored.com are as follows:
- One is allowed to ride shotgun as many times as he can call it, but for himself only. No one can call shotgun for their slower friend, unless the friend has a speech or mental handicap that prevents them from calling it for themselves.
sorry, that one made me chuckle - In the instance that the normal driver of a vehicle is drunk or otherwise unable to perform their duties as driver, then he/she is automatically given Shotgun.
UH. you think? I would hope so! - A person may call "laser" or "Shotgun Double Barrel" after shotgun has been called, to override the shotgun call. This is only valid if the driver verifies the call as we see in Section 1.3.
Okay, you go read the rules to find out what section 1.3 says.
No wonder the website is called 'bored'... you would have to be bored to come up with all these rules. There are sections, revisions, and about 20 different amendments to the rules. After reading these rules, your kids would be so confused they are sure to decide it's just better to ride in the backseat.
Do your kids play this little game? Do you have any specific Shotgun Rules at your house?
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