From The Staff
We’ve Got Better Things to Do with Our Time… But!
By David Marin & The CruZin' Staff
Hey, how about that! We’ve arrived at a milestone — the 20th anniversary of CruZin’ Magazine. That would be the “original” Northwest’s Own… CruZin’ Magazine. Not to be confused with Cruisin’ News, John Sweeney’s fine publication out of Northern California, not Texas version of Cruisin’ Times, nor are we John Shapiro’s Midwest Cruisin’ Times. No, we are as we have always been, CruZin’; copyrighted, registered trademark, 20 years in print and going strong.

Yes, there are pretenders out there, so beware. We’ve had feedback from readers telling us of an individual running around and playing off the CruZin’ name to get people to subscribe to a “soon-to-be” published magazine.

Anyway, as the headline above says, we’ve got better things to do with our time… But, we’ve spent 20 years building the CruZin’ name, we’ve been established on newsstands throughout the Northwest for more than 18 years and we will not stand idly by and let anyone “infringe” on our efforts.

Beyond all that, the bad news is that Dick Kalivoda is in the throes of moving his 35-year accumulation of “stuff” to a new location, so, no 1320 Northwest drag racing column this issue. The good news is that Dick will be back “with bells on” for the Christmas issue.

Turning to the positive side of things, there are a couple of new features we’ve begun with this issue and plan on expanding upon in the future.

First, as you’ll probably notice, we’ve bumped up our gloss paper content to where we’re now at half gloss. Our intent is to use the non-gloss paper primarily for tech and how-to articles, calendar of events listings, classified ads and the like.

The other item you’ll hopefully find of interest is our CruZin Spotlight — see the first of these features on Page 7 of this issue. Ultimately we’d like to carry a “Spotlight” feature from every event we cover.

We’ve also put together features with Moslander’s Rod & Custom and Walt Austin Racing… Check it out, beginning on Page 40.

This issue also includes a couple Featured Cruzers, Oregonians Dee Wescott and Reuben Shanaman, courtesy of the inimitable Al Drake. Al has also whipped up a book review that includes a bit of “pinstriping by Drake”. Enjoy.

Oh, and while we’re thinkin’ Oregon, timing and timeliness dictated that we hold some Oregon coverage for the Christmas issue which makes this issue short on Oregon events. Be assured there’ll be a bunch in the Christmas issue, and, an interesting Rods in Progress feature from the Astoria area.

That’s about it for now except to thank you for your support. Readers and advertisers are the “fuel” that makes CruZin’ “go”. That is something we’ll never forget and always appreciate.

Stay low in the curves and Keep CruZin’,
David Marin & the CruZin’ Staff