When I was dating my first wife, many years ago, mini-pickup trucks were all the rage.   I remember the Chevy Luv truck was one of the most popular ones. I HAD to have one. At the time I was driving a Mazda RX-2. It had a rotary engine and it was fast. I liked going fast. In fact, I still do.

As it so happens, Mazda had just come out with a rotary engine in its version of the mini pickup. Originally it had the usual 4-cylinder engine. My plan was to use it to go camping so I bought a “sleeper” style camper for it as well. The sleeper is like a cab-over but the front doesn’t extend over the cab of the truck, it just goes strait up. It has the table that makes into a bed, an ice box, and a lot of storage. That truck was fast and it could go pretty much anywhere. That was a good truck, fast and go anywhere. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t sleek, in fact, it was a bit boxy. Did I mention it was fast?

I was young, a bit of a brat, a little crazy, a bit of a smart-aleck, and more than a little bit macho. Not exactly the best combination for the pages of “Success” magazine. I wasn’t a jock, I didn’t work out all the time, and, despite what I said above, a little bit shy most of the time.

One thing that I used to think was so funny was to take advantage of the fact that things aren’t always what they seem. It wasn’t nice, but hey, I was just a kid. Anyway, in those days the mini trucks had a bench seat and the girls would slide on over and sit right next to their boyfriends while driving around. He usually had a bit of a smug, “look what I got” look on his face and she would be just sitting there, long blond hair flowing in the wind because all the windows were down. The truck was often jacked up in the back to put bigger tires on the truck to make it look BAD.

I would pull up along side of them at a light, look over and wink at her and just smile. They guy would see what had happened and get a little bit “miffed.” He would shoot me a dirty look as if to say, “I’ll show you.” I’d just smile. When the light changed, I would bury my foot in that rotary engine and just leave the guy in my dust. Me, my Mazda truck, AND my 742 lb. sleeper style camper.

It’s not something I am proud of, it was NOT a good way to treat other people, and yet it is a good way to show that things aren’t always what they seem and we need to check things out and be sure of what we are seeing.