My son and I call these Cadillac Escalade (EXT) beauties the Escamino.
See, being a girl who is not into most things about cars (but can appreciate the art in one), when I was at a stoplight with my 12 year old son in the passenger seat, I was looking at an Escalade and I wondered why they made a newer looking version of the El Camino. I asked my son if he knew what an El Camino was...of course he did...he said it's a car with a truckbed. I said "well that one (pointing to the Escalade) is an Escamino. So it's become a running joke.
As a kid I never understood why someone would want a truck attached to their car. Why not get a truck? And I have never found them appealing in appearance (see what I did there?). Pretty much the same for the Escalade, although it's much shinier (see what I did there?). But now I can say at least both have been interesting enough to teach a girl who isn't into cars something about cars (my husband will be proud).
Little did I know until today that Cadillac actually had the first vehicle named the El Camino, and Cheverolet and Cadillac went back and forth for decades on versions of the car/truck.
The entire history of the Cheverolet El Camino car is an article here, but what I found most interesting was Cadillac (maker of the above Escalade/Escamino) had an El Camino test car first that was a coupe in the 50's! Ok..now I get it...Cadillac's Escalade is not a rip off of Cheverolet's car.
El Camino is Spanish for Road, Path, or Journey. The word is used for an actual road, train tracks, stone or forest paths, but also for expressions such as 'halfway' there, 'went their separate ways' and even 'on the way to disaster' or 'to get ahead in life'. Hence, a suitable name for a car.
The Escalade means "scaling the walls of a fortress". Root words 'scal' as in 'scaling' and 'lade' as in 'ladders' to climb. Wow. I envisioned the prototype of this new shiny version of the car/truck, and a guy in a factory looking at the first one, thinking "What shall we call it? Hmm...it's like a soldier of vehicles...the kind that could climb walls to invade...We shall call it the Escalade."
? what...
I guess it might have been meant more in terms of 'this car can scale a wall if it has to'.
The last interesting bit to my morning of learning about the Escamino was from a website user of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary . When looking up the meaning of Escalade, I found an amusing and informative comment, left by a history and economics teache,r about what brought him to look up the word. He equated the naming of the vehicle as a fortress scaler to the people who drive them as social climbers!! Wow. He might not know he's funny, and I hadn't thought of it like that.
*(I'm sure that could be taken offensively to owners of an Escalade, and I don't intend judgement in this story of learning about Escamino's.)
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| Escamino |
* Coining the phrase: We posted the picture this morning on facebook. We are going to occasionally search and track how far this picture travels the interwebs, so if you enjoy it please share the picture or this blog link!*
As a kid I never understood why someone would want a truck attached to their car. Why not get a truck? And I have never found them appealing in appearance (see what I did there?). Pretty much the same for the Escalade, although it's much shinier (see what I did there?). But now I can say at least both have been interesting enough to teach a girl who isn't into cars something about cars (my husband will be proud).
Little did I know until today that Cadillac actually had the first vehicle named the El Camino, and Cheverolet and Cadillac went back and forth for decades on versions of the car/truck.
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| 1954 Cadillac El Camino |
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| 1968 Cheverolet El Camino |
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| Cadillac Escalade EXT |
The Escalade means "scaling the walls of a fortress". Root words 'scal' as in 'scaling' and 'lade' as in 'ladders' to climb. Wow. I envisioned the prototype of this new shiny version of the car/truck, and a guy in a factory looking at the first one, thinking "What shall we call it? Hmm...it's like a soldier of vehicles...the kind that could climb walls to invade...We shall call it the Escalade."
? what...
I guess it might have been meant more in terms of 'this car can scale a wall if it has to'.
The last interesting bit to my morning of learning about the Escamino was from a website user of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary . When looking up the meaning of Escalade, I found an amusing and informative comment, left by a history and economics teache,r about what brought him to look up the word. He equated the naming of the vehicle as a fortress scaler to the people who drive them as social climbers!! Wow. He might not know he's funny, and I hadn't thought of it like that.
*(I'm sure that could be taken offensively to owners of an Escalade, and I don't intend judgement in this story of learning about Escamino's.)
setting up comments so you don't have to sign up for anything- you can just post!
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done. you can choose 'anonymous' and then you have to select an image to prove you're not a robot. this is as easy as i can make it to post comments.
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