“Dear Kevin”

Dear Kevin:

Thank you for commenting on the column of editor Pam Pollock. Now go back to sleep. 

What I care about, and what Mrs. Pollock cares about, is entertaining you and 70,000 others with humor, insight, trivia, and wisdom. My goal is to hit three out of four without double clutching, skip shifting, blindside backing, or starting a story with, “You ain’t gonna believe this, but….”

After all, you already know all that. Even if you’re not a driver, you already know a steer tire from a drive tire, a Cat from a Cummins, and Mack from a Marmon. There’s a lot to be said for such a level of knowledge.

But you could spend years accumulating the photos Mrs. Pollock gets in a single issue. You could camp out for a week at an east coast Petro, and not hear a story the way she tells it. You could even wait in line for hours at a book signing or read all about it for free in one of Pam’s three-minute stories. 

 As writers or drivers, we’re fair game for naysayers, deniers, analyzers, and complainers, but we do the best we can with what we have. For years, the Pollock clan has put out a first-class magazine with timely information, brilliant photography, insightful history lessons, and occasional biographical trivia. But they hired me anyway.