ack in 1985, I acquired my first “mini-truck:” a 1976 Datsun 620 that I’d traded for a 1966 VW Kombi bus my junior year of high school (looking back on that, I definitely got the short end of the stick, but because I have a weird type of ADHD where I can’t keep anything for any real length of time—and basically, I’m not that smart—I was totally OK with it … till the next one came along!). The bullet-side was pretty much stock other than a healthy drop and a carnival-like Wink mirror, so to differentiate myself from the SoCal mini-truck club scene, and to continue honoring my VW roots, I literally rubber-malleted a set of repop Porsche 356 hubcaps onto the stock steelies then had a friend from auto shop paint it an early Beetle-esque olive green. The VW guys laughed, but the mini-truck guys raised eyebrows Saturday nights at the local GEMCO/Naugles cruise (or whatever they called it). My intentions of not fitting in were a success!

I had a handful of “small” trucks following that throughout the decades and even into my magazine career (Dodge D-50, Mazda B2000, and even a 1980s Ranger, aka turd), but all were slightly lifted with oversized A/T tires; none were lowered nor displayed any typical features of a “mini.” While the VW and mini-truck crowd definitely comingled back in my formative years, I just never connected with the truck guys—but that would all change (for better and worse) in 1993.

When I first began my career at McMullen & Yee Publishing in October 1993, I was forced back into the mini-truck scene by my late-great, not-so-mini mentor, Courtney Hallowell. His showing my green thumb rookie ass the ropes of automotive photojournalism meant getting exposed to the mini scene of the ’90s—the trucks, the shows, the bikini models, ALL of it! Good and bad, it reminded me of what I disliked 10 years prior, but at the same time, it showed me how extremely dedicated to the craft/hobby they truly were. While I did resist the Resolutions/Forbidden Fantasies indoctrination, I was immersed in the scenes to come to know more nicknames than I care to repeat, not to mention getting one or two of my own! All in all, good times for sure—and I miss Tito more than ever!

Here we are some 30 years later and, guess what? Not only am I immersed amongst many of the same mini-truckers from back in the day (now building fullsize trucks), the scene itself is making a comeback! Does that mean A. I have a different perspective regarding minis, or B. CTP will be covering them? No, not really, and no, probably not. BUT, I love seeing the four-wheeled flashbacks from my teens coming out of hibernation and back on the road (and the socials). Kudos to all, as in the end, we’re all cut from the same cloth!