Merry Christmas

I love Christmas. It makes me all mushy inside. It’s just a joy to watch my kids and to think back about my own folks and how they must have watched me and… I’ll spare ya. But I am gonna make ya read through some more mush. See if my math is right, today is basically the sixteenth birthday of The Jalopy Journal.

I was a freshman at the University of Oklahoma and I was home in Midland, TX for the holidays. On the evening of December 25, 1994 I decided it was time to upgrade my Prodigy based website to a brand new hi-tech platform offered by Geocities. After conferring with my mom for a few hours, I also decided to give it a name – The Jalopy Journal. Before that evening, I didn’t even know what the word “Jalopy” meant, but I sure liked the ring of it. And so it was so…

In sixteen years, this site has changed as much as my life. It started as a hobby and a way to learn about both web development and traditional hot rodding. For many years, it remained a hobby/passion and as a great way to escape from my life as a technology startup developer. I was always proud of what the site had achieved and how it had developed into something that could be considered a legitimate media source, but I didn’t consider it anything more than a hobby until a few years ago.

That’s when I decided to make a huge leap of faith and follow my dreams. I made The Jalopy Journal my full time job. Since that time, I’ve literally poured every bit of myself into this site. I’ve made a few good/lucky decisions. I’ve made a lot of dumb ones. I’ve had the best few years of my life. Period.

Now, it would be a great story if I could say that our success was due to my hard work and incredible foresight. But that’s not the case. The success of this site is due to a group of people that has given their undying support to me and my family. A group of people that have stopped at nothing to make this place what it is. A group of people that I owe everything to. You.

So, here I am… hat in hand on this Christmas day in 2010 hoping you accept my gratitude for everything you have given me and my family. Thank you fellas. Thank you for everything. I sincerely mean it when I say that you guys are the reason I am living a dream.

Merry Christmas.