CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Little brother, Augie, has today ambitiously thrown his hat in the ring during a dash for the front seat.
As mum picks up the keys from the kitchen table in preparation for an afternoon trip to visit the cousins, Augie is first one out the back door and down the steps.
While his choice of exiting through the backdoor of the house seems slightly impractical, it also means the 9-year-old baby boy will be out of ear shot when mum asks the kids to help lock up the house.
“Shotgunnn!” he shouts, notifying the rest of the household that he’s on his way to the front seat.
Riding shotgun was used to describe the guard who rode alongside a stagecoach driver, ready to use his shotgun to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refers to the practice of sitting alongside the driver in a moving vehicle. The phrase has been used to mean giving actual or figurative support or aid to someone in a situation.. The earliest coining of this phrase dates to at most 1905.
Augie, oblivious to the colonialist origins of the word, is filling himself with false hope. As he believes shouting shotgun will warrant him a guarantee to sit in the front seat.
The term has been applied to a game, usually played by groups of friends or siblings to determine who rides beside the driver in a car. Typically, this involves claiming the right to ride shotgun by being the first person to call out “shotgun”. While there are many other rules for the game, such as a requirement that the vehicle be in sight, nearly all players agree that the game may only begin on the way to the car. However, being the youngest makes you ineligble, according to his older, red-faced siblings.
“Doesn’t count, your too young” says his puffed older sister, Bella (12).
“You’re too young. Mum tell him he’s too young”
At time of press Augie was seen muttering furiously to himself in the back middle seat.
