Since I’ve mentioned a few of the mechanics I’ve known I thought I would tell an FAF story. Bob Tatum was one of the early salespeople at FAF. Even before Steve Ahlgrim was hired. Tatum was the brother of Gordon Tatum who had a reputation in the Maryland area with his shop RPM Performance, or something like that. Gordon was a character, and I could tell many stories. Suffice it to say he was either famous or infamous depending on who you talked to. His younger brother, Bob, was a big guy. Like six foot six and 280 pounds. We called him Too Tall Tatum or Wookiee. He was also New England loud and when he talked

It didn’t matter where in the building you were he could be heard.Tatum and I traveled many times to pick up cars FAF, or Bob, had purchased. FAF had a Chevy Caprice station wagon they used to pull an open trailer. The trailer was U-Haul orange, and we nicknamed it the Orange Blossom Special. We loaded the wagon and trailer to head out to Mobile, Alabama, to pick up a 250 GTE. Tatum being from Maryland was a huge Washington Redskins fan. That night there was some big game; it may have been a playoff game and Bob wanted to see it. He had bought a portable TV to watch the game in the car. Of course this was way before computers, the internet and streaming on your phone. The quality of the picture is what you would expect from late 1970s electronics. As long as we were in the Atlanta broadcast area the reception was pretty good. As we made our way down I-85 into South Georgia and Alabama the rolling hills made reception spotty. Bob lay down in the back seat, television on his chest and arm out the window holding onto the antenna. The sound would come in, but the picture was full of snow and difficult to see. As we rolled up one hill after another the picture was clear at the top and completely disappeared in the valleys. The timing of the play happened to show the huddle before the snap, and the snow would obliterate the picture as we traveled down the other side of the hill. As the game wound down, it was close scoring and suddenly Bob yells from the back seat “STOP!!” I thought the trailer had come loose from the car, or flat tire. I slammed on the brakes and came quickly to a stop, questioning what was wrong. Bob said the picture was perfect and we spent the next two minutes of game time off the side of I-85.

Good times and great memories.