My big white truck is a RAM. And she is proud of it! But, you might ask, what is a “RAM”? Is it different from a “ram” (a bighorn sheep)? Do the letters R-A-M stand for something? Is it an acronym? Maybe “Ready And Mighty” or “Racing Around Merrily”?
I wondered. So I looked it up online.
The back story is that many decades ago Chrysler Corporation started a line of pickup trucks and cars that they called “Dodge” and then they subsequently made Dodge a separate company from Chrysler. I don’t have a clue why they called it Dodge. Then, later, 1981 or so, under the Dodge corporation, a line of cars and trucks was created called RAM, but they were all Dodge vehicles (like Dodge Darts and Dodge Chargers were and have always been) so the RAMs were called Dodge RAM vehicles.
More recently, in 2010, Chrysler separated the RAM pickup trucks (and larger RAM trucks) from Dodge so that today RAM is its own brand of vehicle. It isn’t Chrysler RAM or Dodge RAM … it’s just RAM.
Almost every RAM truck has the head of a ram (a bighorn sheep) on the front grill … or on the back tailgate (or both). Here’s my big white truck’s proud logo … first photo below is of the tailgate. The head of the ram is sculpted so that, when a bright sky is above, the eyes are gloriously illuminated. She’s looking’ right at you, baby! And she’s sayin’, don’t you get too close unless you mean business! Got my double-barrel exhaust pipes looking’ right at you. (click to enlarge the photo if you dare)
And here’s the front grill of my big white truck …
If you see this in your rear view mirror, you know that this big white truck has her trailer in tow and is serious about getting down the road to her next campground!
Fun stuff. 🙂 But, where did the name RAM come from? Well there are different answers depending on which website you read. When Chrysler/Dodge was building race car engines, the mechanics came up with a new way to force more air into the engine which made the engine more powerful … and they won races! They called that process of injecting/forcing more air “ram injection”. That technology was then used in the engines of some street cars and pickup trucks and those vehicles were then labeled RAM. There are other stories about how the label RAM came to be, but I like this one. It’s the most believable of all of the stories I’ve read.
My big white truck is a gentle soul, she’s so sweet and comfortable and quiet. But she does have that other side of her inside, that other way of dealing with the world, if need be. She does have that “ram injection” engine in her after all. And the engine that she enjoys is the largest gasoline engine that RAM makes. She wouldn’t harm a fly if she could help it. But if she needs to take action, she can sure do that without batting an eye.
We (she and I) have one story about a fellow here in our home neighborhood who, in what he thought was a hot snazzy car, pulled up along side my big white truck at a stop light thinking he would leave her in his dust when the light turned green. Well, I’d seen this guy before, cutting off other drivers, causing problems. So today my big white truck and I had other thoughts. I put my left foot on the brake pedal, and just pushed ever so gently on the gas pedal with my right foot. When that light turned green, I floored it … and we left that NOT so hot snazzy car in our dust. And he tried, he tried to beat us, his car was screeching, leaving rubber on the pavement, his engine was screaming and his car was veering left to right, right to left, but the big white truck didn’t blink an eye, left no tire marks on the pavement, didn’t screech, didn’t huff and puff, but simply left him, ever so gently, and ever so perfectly and pleasantly and undeniably in her dust.
After I got a couple of blocks down the road and then slowed down (it took only about four seconds to leave that guy in our dust), at that next intersection I turned right to go visit friends of mine. And then I noticed another RAM pickup truck behind me … who had ALSO left that guy in the dust, we had BOTH passed that not-so-snazzy car. So I pulled over and stopped. That other RAM pickup pulled up next to me and opened his passenger window. That other RAM driver was grinning! He gave me two thumbs up and said WAY TO GO! Both of us had seen this guy drive like a idiot so many times here. The other RAM pickup driver said he’d been trying to set up the scenario we’d just had, but that he had wanted to be in front. On the other hand, he said, TWO … TWO RAM trucks left that guy in the dirt. He thanked me, I thanked him. We smiled big smiles. And went on our way.
I like to think this kind of scenario doesn’t happen often. It could endanger others on the road. But boy it felt good to leave that idiot behind. And … my big white truck … she just yawned and said “yes, he was irritating me too.”
I take care of her, anything she needs, and then some. And she takes care of me AND she takes care of Towhee the Trailer. They are such good friends! 🙂
