Seeing that society is now linked together through millions upon millions of fiber optic cables that all bond coded e-mail addresses together, getting in touch with people across the world on a daily basis has become standard operating procedure. With a simple click of a button your e-mail is sent directly to someone else in a matter of seconds, for better or worse. Like so many others out there in this day and age, my day begins with a click on the Microsoft Outlook shortcut to see what the day's e-mails hold. In a way, it's like a combination of Christmas morning and one of those days when you're expecting something in the mail. You know, the ones when you run out to greet the mailman hoping to find that your package has finally arrived. Granted, some days I'll open e-mails to find that there is some pretty cool and exciting stuff to behold, while other days it feels as if I've opened Pandora's Box. In recent weeks, I've opened some odd, yet very interesting e-mails.
In our August issue, I wrote my editorial on how I stumbled across the Brazilian Vareneio, a Brazilian C10. A few weeks after the issue had hit the newsstands, I stumbled upon another Brazilian find. Like any other day, I sat down at my desk and sifted through e-mails. As it turned out, one of them happened to be from a CCT reader in Brazil-you can imagine my shock when I realized people in Brazil read our magazine! As it turned out, this reader was quite psyched to see the Veraneio in our magazine, but he also felt that I should be aware of the Veraneio's predecessor, the Chevrolet Brasil. Therefore, he sent me a write-up with photos documenting the history of Chevy trucks in Brazil. The Chevrolet Brasil is a truck manufactured exclusively for Brazil between 1958 and 1964. Like the Veraneio, it too shared a platform with the earlier Chevy trucks. The Brasil was based off the Chevrolet 3100 platform, yet featured all original sheetmetal-even more radical than the Veraneio's. Another common thread that the Veraneio and Brasil share is the fact they both had an SUV counterpart. The Veraneio was available as an SUV, while the Brasil's SUV multi-passenger cohort carried the name Amazonas. The Brasil was even available as a hybrid of the truck and the SUV, a Chevrolet Avalanche of its time, if you will. Once again, seeing pictures of this outrageous truck was like finding out about life on another planet.
A few days later, another e-mail that perked my attention came my way. This time it was an inquiry from our website with attention to me. I figured it was some sort of comment, question or complaint-the usual-but what I began to read was...well, very strange. It was from an oil mineral leasing company in North Dakota telling me I had inherited oil mineral rights from my great grandfather in North Dakota, and that he had been able to locate me by running my name through Google. Like so many other things on the Internet, I figured it was a scam. At the same time, though, a lot of what the e-mail was saying about family ancestry was on par. At that time, I figured whoever was behind this devious plot was, at minimum, a semi-intelligent criminal who had done his research. However, I decided I had nothing to lose and gave the guy a call. Long story short, it turned out to be a legit deal.
As I hung up the phone with the oil dude, I sat back and thought about how insane the Internet is. Within a span of a few days, two things came my way that may never have, if it wasn't for that mass communication digital super highway. From there I began thinking about what's next. That's when I realized tomorrow's another day, with new e-mails, and anything is possible.-Dakota Wentz