How I almost lost my dream job as soon as I landed it

Campfire stories are usually entertaining. Put a bunch of friends sitting on cheap, $5 folding chairs around a crackling, open-air blaze under the star-speckled anonymity of night, lulled vulnerable by the radiant heat of burning wood, and embarrassing anecdotes begin to flow.

- CHRISTIAN HAZEL

One story I’ve only told to a few people (often around a campfire) involves something that happened my first month into landing my dream job as a features editor at Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazine. But with our SUV and Pickup Truck of the Year event fresh in my head and social gatherings still stymied, I guess I can pull up a chair to the virtual campfire and tell this tale of shame and fortune publicly.

It was 1999, and I was the 4WOR new guy. I’d been a voracious reader of automotive magazines since childhood and couldn’t believe I was part of the team evaluating a field of 10 new-for-2000 vehicles for the title of 4x4 of the Year. With some of the biggest names in the publishing world in convoy, Editor Cole Quinnell led the caravan into the wilds of SoCal through dragstrips, mountain roads, offroad trails, and, ultimately, the deserts east of San Diego. And it was there on the last day of the evaluation I almost cashed in my automotive journalist chips.