otterboy47
+1y
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I am old enough, some others are too, to remember reading MT diary as a feature article. It was my favorite part of the magazine, the first thing I read before looking at features. This was 6-7 years or so before the famous quote, where "Wyatt" just talked about his day, his week, his truck, his love life, his friends, his job, and shows he went to, whatever was on his mind. One of the best things was that there (almost) never was a picture, so all these things were imagined as happening in your mind as you read the article, and you couldnt Help but insert pictures of yourself, your own truck, your own friends, your own shows, any of it, into what you were imagining. It was always a perfect description of exactly what I wanted minitruckin to be. He never talked about clothes, or tattoos, or tearing up hotels or shows, dragging (on purpose) or anything like the "scene" guys scream about today. When he moved on to another magazine, guys who tried to reprise his role frequently thought it was about being constantly cool and always being/doing/seeing the best of everything, missing the fact that it was the everyday stuff, the anecdotal telling of even embarrassing situations that was the hook. I call myself a minitrucker based largely on the things I imagined were happening to "wyatt" and interjecting myself into those situations both figuratively and literally, focusing on friends and trucks and relationships. I call it my interpretation, what it means to ME, but wyatt was actually my biggest role model in minitruckin and is who I patterned my behavior after. Treat people fairly, keep good friends, work hard so you can play when it is appropriate to play, love mazdas.
I met him once, at Slamboree 2001. He was looking over my truck as I was coming back from the awards. We talked briefly about stuff I will never remember, I was so starstruck that I probably discussed fish taco recipes (he probably listened). He was a really nice guy, friendly and open, exactly how I had imagined "wyatt" all those years. Some guys will try to summarize and wax poetic and say this is the end of an era, truthfully in you were a minitrucker in the early 90s you know the era ended much earlier than this. It is really only the end of Courtney's life, his legend and my respect for him will continue, and I will never forget the things he taught me.
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Russ D, You said it all. Damn, You said it all.