Remembering Bob Sullivan: The Legacy of a Father and Founder

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The doorknob would be within your grasp, your hand just touching the cool metal, when Bob Sullivan would suddenly find one more thing to show you. A new movie, a funny story, or a random fact he'd discovered – anything to keep you there just a little longer. This "doorknob technique" perfectly captures the essence of our father: a man who savored every moment and connection.

In this deeply personal episode, we take you through the extraordinary life of Bob Sullivan – founder of Bob's Auto Repair, devoted father, innovative thinker, and larger-than-life personality who left an indelible mark on everyone he met. From his early days as an Air Force brat exploring Spain and Africa (where he once had a pet camel!) to his uncanny ability to connect with wild animals (including a falcon that perched on his shoulder without hesitation), Dad's adventures were limitless.

His passion for helping others led him to start Bob's Auto Repair specifically to create a space where women wouldn't be talked down to or taken advantage of – a revolutionary concept in the automotive industry decades ago. But his talents extended far beyond mechanics. He was a technology enthusiast who never believed in volume settings below 75, an interior decorator with coastal flair, and a Florida State superfan whose Seminole-branded Suburban bearing player autographs became legendary at tailgates.

Through eight years of illness, including walking his daughter down the aisle during the pandemic's earliest days, Bob maintained his zest for life. Even after his passing in September 2020, the signs of his presence continue – from remarkable redfish catches at Alligator Point to breathtaking sunsets that arrive precisely when needed.

Whether you knew Bob personally or are meeting him through our stories, we invite you to subscribe and join us for more unscripted, unedited conversations about the remarkable people who shape our lives and the miles between us.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:01):
All right, we're back .
We're back.
Episode two Welcome to Miles.
Between Us with Misty andMelissa.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
It is unscripted, unedited real life.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
How are you today?
I'm good.
I'm good.
This is an exciting time.
We're into the fall andfootball and the students are
back, so how about you?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Good, I got my haircut today it looks so good.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I literally can pull off the short hair.
I can't imagine me with shorthair.
I'd love to see you with shorthair, do you know?
In middle school.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Did you ever have?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
short hair, no.
So listen, at raw middle schoolI wanted to cut my.
I thought I wanted to cut myhair one time and so do you
remember when you're middleschool?
And I wrote those should Mistycut her hair?
Check yes or no and literallypassed it around the class.
But everybody voted no.
So let me know if you think Ishould cut it short or keep it

(01:05):
long.
We could be twinning.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well, today is a very special episode.
I think Probably going to beone of my favorites.
I think it's going to be one ofmy favorites as well.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Who are we going to talk about?
We are going to talk about ourbest friend, our mentor, our
founder, our father Bob Sullivan.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Technically, his legal name is Robert S Lee
Sullivan.
Yeah, and I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
So let's just talk for a second about the S Lee
part.
So the S Lee goes all the wayback to our
great-great-grandfather, andevery boy in that lineage had
the middle name Esley.
However, it changed spellingevery single generation and
alternated between two S's andone S.

(01:52):
And so your son also has thatmiddle name.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, so I stole it.
So technically I shouldn't havenamed Esley that, but I stole
it as his first name and then Inamed it with the two that dad
has, so he's named after dad no,it's, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
You know, today might be a little bit emotional for
us.
We're coming up on five years.
Our dad passed away onSeptember 8th of 2020, so we're
still crazy if we're keeping itreal, right, right, and so grief
sucks.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
It's just weird.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, like it sucks.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
But it's the strange.
If you've never been through it, I love that for you.
But if you've been through it,you know it's so debilitating at
first.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, absolutely Like for me.
I was like what do you mean?
The world goes on Like it can'tgo on Like my best friend, my
dad, is not here, Like you know.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
What do you mean I have to care about everybody
else's problems.
What do you mean I have to gobuy bananas at the grocery store
, Like what do you mean?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, yeah, much less like take care of yourself,
right?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
But we had an amazing relationship with our dad, yeah
, so we want to share that.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, let's talk about some of these stories and
really where our founder camefrom.
He was an Air Force brat.
So our grandfather was in theAir Force and they traveled and
lived all over the world.
Spain was cool.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, I think that was one of his favorites was
Spain.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, he loved Spain.
He also loved Africa.
Really, yeah, lo loved Spain,he also loved Africa.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Really, yeah, loved Africa.
What did we learn about?
Didn't he have a monkey orsomething?
What did he have?
A camel.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
He had a camel.
Dad had a pet camel.
He had a donkey he had.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
yeah, he loved animals.
They loved him.
Yes, the falcon Right.
So tell that story man.
So I wish our other sistercould tell this story.
She was there.
We all just got pictures andvideos and we're all like what
the?
What is happening?
I think we said that a lot withdad.
What the yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So out in Colorado with Christy, I don't know, saw
this bird that looked like maybeit was injured or stunned or
something by a fence, and so dadgot out and it was a falcon a
very large, I'm gonna have toinsert a photo for reference,

(04:17):
because no one's gonna believethat we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
It was massive.
He got out with nothing, though, like normally I feel like
someone would want gloves orlike, absolutely I don't know
something, but this man Right.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And I mean this was not a tamed animal, this was a
wild creature.
And I think when he first sawit, for some reason this bird
went to our dad.
It is sitting on dad's shoulderand it is way bigger than his
head.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
It is sitting on dad's shoulder and it is way
bigger than his head.
You know, the video in theliving room, or whatever my dad
and the bird are on the groundand the bird's just hopping over
to him Like this wild bird insomebody's house is so crazy.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, and it was so close with our dad that Christy
was stationed at the Air ForceAcademy at the time and she
thought maybe it was one of theAir Force's falcons, because
this thing was so close with ourdad and, like, interacted in
such a way that it had to besomebody's falcon, right.
So she called the Air Force andthe Air Force came and it was

(05:17):
not one of their falcons, it wasa wild falcon, I don't get that
close to wild birds.
I don't trust them but I had oneexperience.
So it was our dad was alreadysick and I came out of the
doctor's office and there was ahummingbird that was cool, and
so the hummingbird landed in myhand.
I got to shoot a video andshare it with our dad, and I was

(05:41):
like dad, this is you.
Like this bird is telling meI'm very much like you.
And the yellow bird bird.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Our dad is a beautiful bird.
No, that was crazy.
We were like 15 miles out onthe Boston whaler and this
little I'd call it a Tweety bird.
It looked like a Tweety birdNeon yellow, nothing else around
it just came and sat on theboat for like 20 minutes and
then off it went.
There was just so many momentslike that with dad, with like
animals in general yeah,absolutely.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
And we've talked about Bob's auto repair and we
have people that some of youguys knew our dad, A lot of you
guys knew our dad.
He was kind of infamous inTallahassee.
I think we have people thatworked with him in previous
career.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
We just had somebody stop by last week.
No clue who they were.
Worked at Woolco with them,right Shared stories, said the
other guy that he worked with atWoolco had more stories and
he's just going to tell them toswing by.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, yeah thank you If you have stories about our
dad, please.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Oh, I'd love it.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Love it.
We love the stories, we lovethe interactions.
It's so important to us.
So our dad originally he wasn'ta mechanic.
Our dad started out managingWaffle House, so there's no
doubt in my mind that's where helearned his customer service,
because all of you that havebeen to Waffle House at 2 in the
morning like they get your foodright.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
And so, yeah, he was a manager at Waffle House.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
With Johnny.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then he got an opportunityto work at Wolko, which for
anybody Wolko doesn't existanymore, but back in the day it
was like the first Walmart superservice center and it had an
automotive repair center in itand he became like the regional
manager for that.
So that's how he really.
He grew up with motorcycles andrace cars and always loved

(07:32):
actual auto mechanics.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Was it you or Ryan that would get around the block
on the motorcycle to be put to?

Speaker 2 (07:37):
sleep.
Yeah, absolutely, ryan.
He just fell in love withhelping people and actually
dad's first customer that heever had in Tallahassee was Judy
Hickman, and she's still acustomer today.
So we love you, Judy.
Thanks for you're awesome.
Yeah, thanks for sticking withus too.
I think dad really instilled inus how important customers are.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I mean they're they're friends, they're family.
He's just always wanted to helppeople and he could whether
that be with, like a warmconversation or actually fixing
your cars.
Like he's one of the very fewpeople that I've ever come in
contact with that's trulypresent, like he doesn't talk
about other people, he's alwaysjust current, and that's really

(08:19):
hard to do.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, I mean, not only was he current, but he was
ahead of all of us, true?
So he knew all the latest songs, all the latest you know,
Gadgets, electronics, all of it.
Yeah, I mean I remember goshbefore like big screen TVs.
He had like a 75 inch TV.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
That thing was a beast, it was.
It took up the entire wall ofthe house.
I mean, that thing probablyweighed like 800 pounds.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yes, it was huge, but he had to have kind of the
latest surround sound.
Yes, we all absolutely love TopGun.
Because of that, every time hegot a new stereo component or a
new speaker, that song gotblared.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yet more emphasis on the blaring it.
I do not believe our fatherbelieved in any volume below 75.
That's probably true, yeah it'sprobably true.
Maybe that was after all theyears of you know the loud
mechanic life, but maybe he justhad a passion.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
I think he just had a passion for loud stuff Full
speed, yeah, and fun.
You know I can tell you that dadprotected us.
He fought for us, he challengedus, he encouraged us.
He loved us.
He fought for us, he challengedus, he encouraged us, he loved
us.
I always knew, growing up andearly into my college years,
right like if a boyfriend wasbeing dumb, dad was going to
show up.

(09:34):
He was going to show up and hewas probably going to kick his
shoes off, because if dad kickedhis shoes off, he was about to
whip somebody's ass.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
No doubt he was good at that subtle intimidation
where he really didn't say muchbut his, his tone shifted, his
mannerisms got a little tighterand you're like, oh, oh, this
like really charismatic funnyguy, just kind of took it to a
new level.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
There's a new level there, for sure.
So tell me some of yourfavorite memories with dad.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's hard.
So my memory is not good fromwhen I was younger and then the
divorce happened, so that was awhole crazy time, but then I got
to live with him for.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I don't even know how long I'd say at least a few
years.
Oh yeah, I think it was fouryears.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, yeah, so dad died in my 20s so I didn't get
much of like the adulthood withhim.
So I'm glad I got to live withhim, because I feel like it kind
of expedited things and we justshoved in a lot of memories in
there.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
They had a party house, in case anybody wants to
know.
It was great.
The one on Devereaux was somuch fun.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
So I've never seen a house where it's laid out, where
it's like the upper deck, andthen you go down below into the
pit with like the living roomand then you have the pool table
.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
You had the pool outside did was rig up the
hammock chair on a pulley systemto go over in the air above the
pool.
Like there always had to besomething cool that was going on

(11:13):
, yeah he could never leave itas is.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
He didn't know what the word meant, but the feng
shui he would be redecorating, Iswear, every couple weeks, like
the couch would be in adifferent spot, like he would
totally revamp.
And he loved interiordecorating he did.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Coastal beachy nautical, Like that was kind of
his element.
But honestly he wasn't bad atit.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
He was actually really good, yeah, I think we've
all taken a little style fromhim.
Yeah, I want to go back to kindof his passion for the auto
repair business because hehonestly started it to help
women.
Dad saw when he was at Wolkowomen being taken advantage of.
He thought that people you know, these mechanics had a

(11:56):
reputation and they would talkdown to women, Didn't make them
feel as comfortable or explainthings to them.
And dad absolutely, you know hehad daughters at that point.
No, that was not going tohappen.
I think that's where we get ourpassion from right, Because
it's not just women.
I mean, we explain stuff topeople all the time.
Cars have gotten morecomplicated, but dad really had

(12:18):
that passion for helping you.
It was all about explainingwhat was going on.
And I remember one time we hada young girl at Florida State
who was struggling financiallyand her car had broken and dad
allowed her to donate dog foodor cat food to the shelter in

(12:42):
exchange for her car repair.
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
I hadn't heard that one.
Yeah, absolutely.
But that's what's funny is I'mprobably going to say that
that's crazy, I hadn't heardthat one.
Yeah, absolutely.
But that's what's funny is I'mprobably going to say that often
oh, I hadn't heard that one.
Because that's another thingthat skips people when you have
so many years apart is you justdon't, you don't even know what
has or hasn't been told, andmemories are really hard to just
all of a sudden say, hey,what's your favorite memory?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
You just blank because you're like how am I
supposed to go through 20something years of memories on
the spot like that?
Yeah, Our dad was the greatest.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Our dad got sick and he was stubborn, right, it was
eight years.
He was sick for eight years andI remember the day that he
could no longer work.
I thought that it was justgoing to crush him, but he would
still come and be around hiscustomers.
And then at one point weinstalled cameras so he could

(13:30):
see what we were doing on adaily basis.
And it was definitely likehaving big brother, but it was
big dad, because Melissa put herdesk up on my feet one time and
dad called and said tell thatgirl to get her feet off your
desk.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
It's hard when you're a people person for that long
and then all of a sudden yourhealth tanks and you're kind of
stuck and isolated.
It was a nice way to feelconnected, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
And he would bring little bear and he would come up
and visit the shop.
And for us it was such ablessing that I think our dad
took great comfort in knowingthat we were taking this to
another level.
He got to see this shop bebuilt.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
He loved that this new shop.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
I mean, he had spent all those years on Gaines Street
.
Little known fact.
One of the first locations wasactually on Lake Bradford, it's
now the.
Fsu RV parking lot, but thatwas dad's original shop in that
area, full circle.
This came back home and as wewere building it, dad would come
down here and check theprogress and look at the steel

(14:26):
beams and check everything.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Do you remember how crazy that was Our very, very
last day on gains?
I mean, he knew it was our lastday but, like he didn't know
what time we were going to bedone, we had a bottle of
champagne and we stepped out onthe porch and within 30 seconds
we didn't even pop it yet hejust comes up, little bear.
His lab jumped out thepassenger seat and he just came

(14:48):
and hung out and then we poppedthe bottle.
Like there are things like that, that the timing was wild.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, yeah, because I think that dad was just
connected.
He was connected to us.
He was connected to ourfeelings and emotions, and he

(15:14):
was connected to this business,so that's never going to leave.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
If you ask us why our at all?
I remember seeing him you know,by his toolbox and in the shop.
But like I don't recall himever working on a car, but those
tailgates was where heflourished.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Epic Bob and Casey level.
Like we had so much fun withyou guys.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
We miss everybody tailgating.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes, it was amazing.
It was so much fun Back in theday.
You could literally walk in andsee Coach Bowden and he was
really good friends with ChuckAmato and all of those guys.
He worked on Chuck Amato'sCorvette for years and so dad
had a Suburban that he would getthis big old body Suburban and
in that center it had kind ofthe old panel right down the

(15:58):
center and every single year hewould take the Suburban.
It was garnet and he had abeautiful hand-painted Seminole
head on the hood and he wouldtake it over to the stadium and
the coaches would bring the teamout and the entire team would
autograph Dad's Suburban andthen he would clear it and that
truck would go to everyout-of-town game.

(16:19):
Everybody knew that truck.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Everybody was excited to have their because that's
just so cool.
I mean, honestly, it was sounique and different right, and
if you haven't seen it which I'msure a lot of you haven't,
because I just saw it for thefirst time a couple weeks ago,
but it's in the lobby, you cansee a picture of it.
Yeah, it was really incredible.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
He had a helmet that was this huge, I mean Like a
beanbag holder yeah, it's like athree foot by three foot
Florida State Universityfootball helmet, metal helmet
and he would strap it to the topof the truck and away.
We'd go to these games.
Players could have jobs and sothey were some players that
worked for dad and you hostedthem as kind of godparents,

(17:00):
because they don't get to gohome for Thanksgiving.
We always play Florida thatweekend, yeah, so they would go
to houses and have Thanksgivingand it was just a huge, huge
family.
I can tell you that I have satwith dad in the pouring rain of
football games.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
His biggest.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
As much as he hated Florida, the place he hated
worse was Miami.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
No, the only thing I remember going to games with him
Miami it did not matter,because I don't remember stats.
Dad knew stats.
He could tell you in 1993, inthe fourth quarter, with two
minutes left, I'm like it's toomuch, that's amazing, that's too
much.
It did not matter.
With Miami, whatever year itwas, we could both suck.

(17:44):
One could be great, one couldnot be great.
It always came down to thoselast 30 seconds and he wouldn't
be with me.
I'd be like 12 years old in thestands by myself because he had
to go down to the concessionand pace and watch it on the TV.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
He couldn't do it.
He never knew what was going tohappen in that game.
My favorite out of town gamewith him was the first time we
played Notre Dame.
At Notre Dame, Dad and I flewup to Chicago and over and at
that time the College FootballHall of Fame was there and there
was so much stuff about BobbyBowden in there and it just felt
like home and it was.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
That campus is beautiful and the people were so
nice no, honestly, another fungame was our first time ever at
the champions club me, you dadand back my husband.
Yeah, that was incredible thechampions club.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Absolutely beautiful.
Dad loved every minute of it.
When you go from sitting onthose metal bleachers and see
the changes over the years Imean when he started that brick
wasn't around there- Like itlooked like an erector set you
guys To see all of those changesand then him go to the
Champions Club.
He just felt that was his verylast game.
It was his very last game.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
And what a way to go out.
He loved all the food and theviews and socializing with
everybody.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
He just always thought things were neat, like
if.
I had to boil it down to that.
He just genuinely lived lifeLike I wish I could be better at
, where he found excitement inthe little things and he didn't
take life too seriously.
He was wildly inappropriate,but at the best times he knew

(19:22):
that he could get a rise out ofcertain people, and it was
usually me.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Oh, he loves scaring you.
He would jump out constantly.
He just loved messing with me24-7.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
So at Misty's house she's at now it's been remodeled
, hallelujah.
I don't remember what it wasactually for, but it was the
doors.
Poorest design in the entireworld, in my opinion.
If you're the one who'sconstantly being messed with,
you have the stove and thenright next to that you have the
countertop where you're cutting,prepping whatever, and then you

(19:50):
have these two little it's adoor through.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
it was a pass through to the original owner.
It was a woman who was veryinto basketball and she would
make her husband and kids cookher wings, and then they would.
So she did not have to leaveher room watching these
basketball games and they wouldpass her her chicken wings
through this window.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
So she's iconic, but I don't like her because that
was my demise.
I mean I would be cuttingsomething up, he didn't care.
He didn't care what I was doing.
I could be holding a boilingpot of water and he would bust
through those things and be likeSurprise and I'm like buddy.
There was a time at Devra I wascarrying the laundry basket and

(20:31):
there's kind of like a halfisland and I'm walking.
He was on the ground.
So again, this is when he wasstill healthy that I got this
version living with him On theground.
So again, this is when he wasstill healthy that I got this
version living with him.
He is on the ground like acreature popped out.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
I got so scared I dropped the basket, hopped
inside the basket.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
And I feel like he just kept getting too satisfying
of moments like that that he'slike why would I stop?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Right, because you would freak out, but then you
would laugh.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Because, yes, what else do you do Cry?
I'm resilient because of him,it's true?

Speaker 2 (21:04):
yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the fact that
all of kids and grandkids havehad a part in this, this
business even down to the tatertots yeah we've got gino, jacob,
jacob, christy, misty, me, ryan, aiden, emberley, esley.

(21:24):
Alexis, alexis.
Yeah, I think that's everybody,every single person.
Yeah, at least spent a summerup here.
Yeah, he had so many passionsin life.
Right Like he absolutely lovedfishing, he loved Alligator
Point.
He constantly had a boat in ourlives.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Just anything coastal he was drawn to.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, it was where he wanted to be.
His black marlin Epic right.
So there was a group inTallahassee Silver Slipper,
daddy Chris shout out to BillKalfas.
They had started this annualtrip to Costa Rica to go fishing
with the guide out of NorthCarolina.
That became friends with dadafter that and so every year

(22:08):
this group of guys a prettylarge group, I don't know 56
would go down there, it wasbigger than I remember, yeah,
and they were always chasing themarlin, right.
So a blue marlin is it's a bigfish and it's actually kind of
common for you to catch in areaslike that.
And then there's a white marlinis a big fish and it's actually
kind of common for you to catchin areas like that, and then
there's a white marlin, but thekind of sought-after
nobody-catches-one is that blackmarlin.

(22:29):
Our dad was down there on hissecond trip and dad caught an
800-pound black marlin.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
And the other one.
What was the other one?

Speaker 2 (22:37):
The rooster, the rooster fish he loved that one,
that black marlin gosh, the joythat it brought him and and that
beautiful atmosphere and beingin costa rica it was just meant
to be.
I mean, other people had goneforever yeah, I mean bill kalfas
still talks about the fact thathe went fishing for that black
marlin every single year and,dad, that was the one another

(22:59):
tie with these animals.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
i'm'm telling you it's crazy.
When he passed away we did alittle celebration.
We got so many signs that trip,more than I'll probably be able
to recall right now.
But the animal thing was theredfish.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, so it's pretty unusual to catch redfish off of
Alligator Point.
And our dad had years ago, Imean I was probably I don't know
nine or 10 years old.
He was fishing off the beach inAlligator Point and he caught
two beautiful, just perfect inslot redfish on the same day,
and so there's this amazingpicture of dad and these redfish

(23:35):
.
And then, on the day of hispaddle out, we actually paddled
out and spread his ashes atAlligator Point, shane's dad's
son and Shane started fishingoff the beach after we had
paddled out.
We were all back fishingbecause that's what we were
going to do to celebrate dad'slife, and Shane, who doesn't
fish caught two redfish that day.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, before that nobody had caught redfish off of
Alligator Point like that.
And then that summer when Iwent down there and I would stay
at a house down there and I wasfishing off the beach and I
caught two redfish.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
And so we have our pictures kind of side by side,
all saved together.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, and that sunset that was down there, the
rainbows it was insane.
We had insane double rainbowsthe most luscious pink purple
sky tied with those rainbows,the most luscious pink-purple
sky tied with those rainbows.
We were there for probably likefour days or something, and I'm
not kidding.
Every single day there was thegorgeous full moon, but this

(24:31):
sunset y'all I'm a sunset seeker.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
She is, I would say, sunsets are like we will find a
sunset.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
I will stop everything for a sunset and I
remember it was like a coupledays before he was passing and
I'm just like send me a sunset.
Like people ask for signs orlike something like that.
I'm like send me something.
It was wild.
It was the most vibrant sunsetI've ever seen in my life.
It it was just the most orange,bright, like we have the most

(25:02):
incredible pictures and videos,but it was dad right, because he
couldn't send us just one, itwas nuts.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
He sent us an entire, like five days of signs every
single day that he was okay,that we were gonna be okay and
that he was watching over us.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
And it's crazy because, like, you're very
strong in your faith, yeah, andI'm not as strong with certain
things, where I'm matter of fact, and no matter where you stood
on that spectrum, there was somany that you're just like, okay
, come on now.
Like I hear you, I see you.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, I mean, we went through some hard times, we
went through some good times.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
He was sick for eight years.
Yeah, I mean, there was three Ican think of, unless I'm
forgetting one to where theywere.
Like he's not going to make it,oh, yeah, no absolutely.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
I mean, there was one where he spent 13 days in the
hospital and our brother, ryan,brought me a cot and I spent the
night in that intermediate ICUroom and never left the campus
of that hospital.
And so one day he's dying andhe's not going to make it, and
the next day we're going homeand he's, you know, bouncing
around.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
And that's what was crazy is the highest highs match
with the lowest lows.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
When my husband planned not his first, because
the first one got ruined by somehurricane, but the second
proposal in Thomasville.
We're over by the tree.
Zach gets down on one knee.
I black out.
I have no clue what he said.
I said yes, but then I hear offin the distance and I hear Mois
.
Does that mean yes?

(26:35):
And I'm like what the hell?
And you see this head peekingout of some car, I do not know,
some like gold Jeep, and he'sjust back there and I'm like
what is happening?
And even Zach didn't know hewas in the photographer's car.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Oh yeah, Hiding back in there.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
I was in the bushes filming it, just to be true.
That was so funny.
I was crawling in the bushes.
No, funny seeing you'recrawling in the bushes.
No, if y'all could see hervideo, it is literally a video.
This close to her face she's onthe ground, army crawling,
whispering out of breath, andshe's like two houses down and
then she's like they just walkedby.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
They just walked by but dad wasn't gonna let that go
again.
A testament to who he was right.
Right when dad found out thathe had less than a year to live
and dad said I can't go, I gotthree things I got to do.
What do you have to do?
You know what I mean?
Like I'm confused and he said Iwant to make it to my birthday,

(27:33):
I want to make it to Melissa'sbirthday and I want to walk
Melissa down the aisle.
He damn sure did.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
But, dear Jesus, y'all Barely.
I got married the weekend theworld shut down.
That Wednesday, before March21st 2020, I was still going to
Costa Rica.
My whole family was texting meand they were like Melissa,
you're not going on yourhoneymoon.
No, I got to rewind because thedate even changed, because the

(28:00):
first venue completely shut down.
It's true.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Pearl in the.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Wild, if y'all heard about it.
That shut down so I had toscramble with all these other
brides and pick a different date.
So maybe it was March 20.
And then we changed the dateagain as it got closer to COVID
because you couldn't have somany people, and then it was a
Saturday versus a Sunday, butthen we had the rehearsal house
booked, so then we had to changeit back.

(28:25):
So I think we went back andforth like four different times.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, and every time it made my heart sink right,
because our dad was not good atthis point, like he was super
weak, but he was committed.
He was going to walk you downthe aisle period.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
And I remember calling you and I was like
listen.
I don't know what's happeningwhen I'm getting married.
Whatever I was like, dad has towalk me down an aisle.
Like I'm not just putting thison hold.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Well, no, no, no.
Let's say that you called mefreaking out, crying Absolutely,
and then told me your weddingwas off because the government
had shut the world down.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, cause it slowly was like oh, no more than this,
many people, oh, no more thanthis, and then you can't do
anything.
Life is closed.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
And you called me and I said I'm going to need you to
take a deep breath.
There was no way in hell.
One, I wasn't letting you getmarried to your wonderful
husband and two, our dad was notgoing to walk you down that
aisle.
He had held on for over a year.
We basically said bump thegovernment, you and Jen were
just a godsend.
We took that house and we madean incredible three days.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
So that was Wednesday , yeah, and then on Saturday we
got married.
So my sister-in-law, jen, andthen my sister had three days to
plan a yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
And it worked out.
That was one of the happiestmoments I've ever seen in our
dad's life.
He got to walk you down theaisle.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Mind you, misty tried to cause me to have a panic
attack right before we walkeddown the aisle because we were
over an hour late.
That's true, easily.
And then she just comes downthe stairs and she's like do you
know what time it is?
I'm like you don't ever saythat to a bride.
And then that's when I had tolock myself in the bathroom,
hyperventilate and then showtime.
Yes, but then dad had to do Godhow many breathing treatments?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, a ton of breathing treatments.
But he did it, and your brother, married you officiated it and,
funny story though, yourmarriage license was in Georgia.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Oh, there's so many hiccups to this story.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
I could do a whole section on this, but dad walked
her down the aisle.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
It was incredible.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
He got his moment Because I got it in great detail
.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
He even danced with her.
So he was on Oxygen.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Tank.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
So aren't you the one ?

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, literally.
Yes, yes, I danced with anOxygen Tank.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, misty's having a Vanna White moment where she's
literally doing the tango withhis oxygen bottle, and then
we're swaying and you can startto see him slowly slip towards
the end of that song air supply.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Many of you probably do not know it, but it's a
goodie.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
It's yeah, it's incredible, yeah, so that's
what's so funny is like westruggle with thinking of our
memories and then one pingsanother and pings another.
I'm like how, how did I almostforget my wedding?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
him walking down the aisle well and it was even
cooler.
So I don't know what it is withthese three days, but you had
your wedding and then Alexis, mydaughter, was supposed to get
married in that December.
She saw grandpa going down.
She called after that and saidI need to get married with

(31:24):
grandpa.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
And she gave us three days.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
She gave us three days literally.
She gave up this big, hugewedding she was planning.
And we created a beautifulwedding at dad's house beside
his bed.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Well, and even then, like we were supposed to be
marrying her outside, we got atent.
And then the day of I went andgot flowers at Trader Joe's,
like we are scrambling and we'regetting it done, and then
Alexis all of a sudden is justlike he can't make it down there
.
So we're like, okay, we set itup right there in the living
room and he was about three feetaway, so it was perfect.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
It was incredible, yeah, special treat for
everybody.
I'm so excited.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Our first guest?
Our first guest?
Yeah, it's our first guest.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
And we love him.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
He's pretty cool we and we love him.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
yeah, he's pretty cool, love him, so we're gonna
welcome our brother ryansullivan is joining, so let's
get him in here.
Welcome, welcome.
Yes, test, test, what's up.
What's up, hello?

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I'd like to start our little initiation with our
guests with a little pepsicheers.
That was our dad's drink.
Through and through cokeproducts.
No, thank, no, thank you.
Alright To Bobbo we love, ya,love.
Ya.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
As the officiant of both of these weddings y'all
were talking about when I walkedin, though, can I just point
out that you were saying itdeserves its own like episode.
Your fiasco deserves its ownpodcast.
Okay, like I don't even knowhow many times I officiated your
wedding, I feel like you.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
I think we need another one you guys are going
to have to tune in for that,because I'm telling you there is
epic midnight at the countyline cops showing up Like it's a
whole thing.
Tune in for that one.
Let's get back to our dad, wholoved these stories.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
True, oh, he loved all the stories.
My man was staying on the news.
I could.
If dad was still alive, wewould know exactly what the
weather was in Monument,Colorado.
You're so right when our sisterChristy used to live.
My dad was Even after she moved.
I mean, that dude was on top ofinternational weather patterns.
Why would you even be talkingabout Bob Sullivan if you were
not talking about TVs, gadgets,laser discs, bumping stereo

(33:29):
systems?

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh, yes, I told them.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
His volume was never below 75, like ever when you got
a laser disc you got to bump itokay because we had the good
lazy boys too, with a littlevibrating function so you could
kick back on a sunday, put thechairs in the middle of the room
, put on like top gun days ofthunder, footloose.
I mean you might as well takeif it goes up to a 10, put it on
an 11, because we want to seethe windows shake yes and we had

(33:56):
all those tall windows.
You know, on gibbs, yeah, shoutout to that house that what they
rebuilt was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
But our house was cool because dad you know he
built 75 of it with no permits.
But he said you know what wejust got to expand which, which
is why that house no longerexists, because it was condemned
just so you know.
It was not condemned.
It was not no, no, no, theyjust started fresh.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
It was not legal in any way, shape or form.
A friend of ours was aninspector and he's just like Bob
.
Bob, I literally live threeblocks from you.
You are clearly building on awhole garage.
He's like I got a game room too.
You want to?

Speaker 1 (34:32):
come play pool.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
You know it's like yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
I didn't really go into the depths of that.
I said dad was big into FengShui, but I only talked about
furniture.
I mean he'd all of a suddenhave a brand new driveway
randomly.
He'd have a whole section likean addition of the house, like
within a weekend.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
His whole VHS wall that you know, walls, walls, the
great wall of tape.
Well, he liked building stuff.
I mean.
Another fun fact I've got thepictures that Ryan and dad
helped build the bar in Potbellyoh, that's, true you guys
actually tore down that building.
Originally had two fireplacesin the center and you guys tore
those fireplaces down and helpedDan build the bar in there.
I just saw those pictures forthe first time last weekend.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I just see it in my mind because I think I was like
nine and I had a sledgehammer.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
You had like an oversized tee on.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Every time I drive by a popular place, I'm like
mm-hmm, y'all are welcome, yourlittle dance floor.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
I knocked that out for you.
My heart and soul is in there.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Like the shirt says spread good vibes.
You know Good vibes.
Let the people dance Foot loose.
But can we get back toLaserdisc, because I don't think
the audience really appreciateswhat's happening here.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
I don't even know Laserdisc, honestly.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
After VHS and before DVD, was this big?

Speaker 2 (35:45):
vinyl record.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
It was a vinyl record size digital video disc and
you'd have to flip it overhalfway through because I was
thinking about DVDs and laserdiscs and stuff.
And when y'all used to playsoftball and mom supervised up
at what's that, messer, yeah,and dad would get off work and
pull up, just be blasting thehits man, just open the doors,
cranking it.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
I was like I will always think of the sign you
dropped the bomb on me and oneother when he'd come pick me up
from gymnastics.
He didn't care what anyone'staste in music was, because his
was obviously superior.
He's like I will blast itsoftball.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
One I really remember was always that wild west
Janie's in the back room lookingfor the big boom.
I'm on the bedroom waiting formy bae.
It's an obscure one, but if yougrew up at Messer Park you
definitely heard it Right.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
What's one of your favorite memories with him?

Speaker 1 (36:39):
My personal favorite that you're tied into is the
touch of the doorknobs.
Oh my Jesus, there's some forcefield that happened.
So this is when dad was sickand we all made like this
calendar.
We'd trade off shifts buthonestly it didn't matter,
because on my nights everybodywould show up and vice versa, so
you'd be there.
It's not like we'd stop by 10minutes.

(37:00):
We're there like three hours,four hours, like we're there a
long time.
The night is ending, we have togo to bed.
We have to, you know, go towork.
The next day we'd go to touchthe doorknob.
He'd wait till you touched it.
You're leaving.
Oh I, I just started this wholenew movie.
You gotta come sit down andwatch it.
Oh, did you see that?
Did you hear this?
Like you wouldn't have evenbeen talking for the last 30

(37:22):
minutes and that was his way ofjust not wanting you to go.
But zach got got more than anyone of us.
He would text me and be likehey, I'm so'm so sorry.
We just started a movie.
I won't be home till midnight.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Because we'd be watching Westerns for hours,
right, old Westerns, black andwhite stuff.
Yeah, you ain't talking aboutnothing.
Maybe every now and then youtalk about something completely,
absolutely random that he foundon his phone, but then every
time you touch the doorknob oh,I got to show you this, dude.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
You could have shown me this in the past three hours
but that was all way better thanlike all right.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
so I'm going to need you to go to Whataburger Y'all.
I love me some Whataburger, butWhataburger on Northman Road
Street is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly slow.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Oh, I'll never go to that.
You get trapped in thatdrive-th one time for over an
hour and a half and I justwanted to leave the bill, the
one I shared in the group text.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
The man had the audacity to text me while I'm in
the arby's line, already therefor 20 minutes, and he says I
need donuts and I'm like pleasespare me, kind, sir.
I'm not even at the window andit's already been 20 minutes and
he goes, but, but I need.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
And and if you can swing by Dairy Queen and get
some ice cream for the dogs, I'mlike no, no, I cannot.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Zach was appalled the first time.
He waited in that water burgerline for 30 minutes and then he
gets there to dad's, he'schilling with them and all of a
sudden he sees him hand two ofthe Justa burgers to the dogs.
He was in pure disbelief ofwhat just happened.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
I'm still in disbelief.
When you were like what's thebest memory?
And you bring up the doorknob,I'm like.
I mean, I love hanging out withmy father?

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Was it you or you that finally got smart and
bought a whole carton.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Oh, that was me definitely Genius.
I am a bulk buyer.
I have that stashed upstairs.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
He would never text you on the way Again.
He'd wait till you had to gohome.
He's like need some cigarettes.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
But see, I had to be sneaky about it and not let him
realize that I had a carton, orelse then he would just know
there was a carton there.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
But there was a.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
North Carolina trip.
So we rented this cabin.
We had all gone up and itsnowed 12 inches of snow.
It was like their largestsnowstorm they'd had.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
No, that was so fun.
We were driving up whateverparkway it was and we all found
it's the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Well, I don't know if it wasthe Blue Ridge that time,
because I feel like it was justlike the side of the road, but
we found like cardboard cutoutsand we grabbed them.
It was me, you, dad, I think itwas us three that slid.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
I think we might have slid Aiden's little baby down.
Yeah, probably.
I mean, why would we not?

Speaker 1 (39:53):
But it was mostly ice , honestly, and there was, like
this one solid hump and you gotway too much air than you should
have and I think we almost allcracked our tailbones on that
one.
But I mean, dad was thriving onthat trip.
He had the puffiest jacket onecould possibly imagine, but he,
he was in it.
I mean he was throwingsnowballs left and right and

(40:15):
then he this is when we were bythe big old sign that we were
getting out to take a picture.
This is what you have now,which is the red truck, misty's
truck at the time.
We're shoved in the back and I'min the middle, dad's here and
he's getting out and he's, youknow, hopping out slowly and
then all of a sudden he's gone,like I see his whole body and I

(40:35):
see nothing, and he had steppedon the running board and I guess
I saw I still man down, mandown.
I have never seen someone fallso fast.
And then I look out and he'sjust in his little marshmallow
on the ground and then, likefive seconds later, he's on the
very top of that big old signsitting up there like a little

(40:57):
leprechaun.
So he's just like a spritefellow.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
You know, this is what we love, right?
So we're just able to sit, talkand just be us.
I mean, there's nothing greater, you're right, nothing greater
than us.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
I think she said it, you heard it.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Here live people.
You know it was always myfavorite with you and dad and
cars.
You like to blow them up.
He literally left cars all overthe country.
This is an ambush.
No no, I mean, dad just smiled.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
It's just facts.
My father was also a race cardriver and an auto mechanic, and
my family owned more differentcars than, like you could even
imagine, like every week itwould be a different car.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Wasn't it like in Spain or somewhere, that he
would do like legit drag racingand stuff in the street?
Well, yeah, he'd drag race here.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
But then in Spain, you know, there were some really
fast go-karts and stuff.
But see in Spain the stories hewould tell because he was old
enough to drive, I mean becauseit's Spain in the 60s, yeah who
even knows how old he was he?
was probably like 12.
Back then, according to him,the people were really into long
tailpipes on their mopeds.
You know, these things go inphases, like the mods.

(42:02):
In England they were reallyinto side view mirrors and then
when I was in Japan, you couldsee motorcyclists drive by.
They were really into theseelaborate pipe metal stars,
stars and stuff as like the backof their motorcycles.
Like you know, there's alwayssomething that's like, you know,
low rider bikes, whatevergorilla bars.
You know, back then they hadthese vacuum cleaners that were

(42:23):
like horizontal cylinders thatthen had a long hose and a
separate vacuum head.
Well, they had this really longmetal piece as the vacuum head.
So dad cut it off to put on hismoped and his mom was not stoked
and then he was a fabricator.
I think statute of limitationsis long gone and this was
another country.
He also said how, like, heinstalled a switch on the car to

(42:44):
where you could shut off thebrake lights so you flip this
switch and when you hit thebrakes the brake lights don't go
.
So so that way, when you'repossibly driving quickly away
from the police, you could flipoff this switch and then they
don't know you're slowing downand you can like take these
quick turns.
So fabrication yes, and and how?
Like?
Okay, it's not really my fault,I wrecked my car in the first

(43:06):
week do tell.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Why are you giving me that?
I'm just curious how it's notyour fault.
Who was behind the wheel?

Speaker 3 (43:11):
The genetics.
Anyway, I'll let Jesus take thewheel.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
What else did he do in Spain with the donkey?

Speaker 3 (43:18):
He like blew the tail off a donkey statue or
something, and you're justreally trying to get him
arrested.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Good thing you cannot get arrested in heaven.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
In Madrid, which was his favorite place he ever lived
, and he lived in French Morocco, but so in Spain.
Back then you could just likego to the market and buy a cloth
or a paper wrap or whatever, ofgunpowder, dynamite.
You know you would make yourfireworks by the gram Him and
his hoodlum buddies.
You know, because these aremilitary brands.
Right, and so they're justliving on bases across the world
.
Yeah, you know, they boughtsome dynamite in their little

(43:48):
paper wrap and then there's afamous sculpture of Don Quixote
and so they stuffed, used theirchewing gun, they stuffed the
explosives in the donkey's rearend, the ass's ass, if you will,
no-transcript.
They were also known to putsoap in all the fountains that
line the avenue.
Which one thing I thought weshould mention is how you'd be

(44:09):
at his house.
You know, when he was likebedridden or whatever, the TV
was on in this room that he waslike laying in front of, and
then the TV was on in the otherroom and then the projector was
pointing at the ceiling.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
He had one off of his phone, so it was like a
handheld one that he had.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Oh, but then he also had his phone.
Yes, yeah absolutely, and thenalso simultaneously trying to
have a conversation.
Yeah, and you're like hangingout with this for like hours
just completely overstimulated,and then you go to touch the
doorknob and it's over.
I grew up on the other side ofthe wall of the living room on
Gibbs, the living room on gibbs.

(44:47):
Again, it's like a school night,it's like 2 am and it's rambo
and you're like yeah, it wasalways an action movie, and so
we turn it down and then you goback to bed, and then it would
get progressively louder andyou're like this guy is a 12
year old well, and let's talkabout his lights.
So he was into lights, which younow have I mean, he's the
reason I now like doing massage,have laser lights in my office,

(45:08):
put the people in thatmeditative trance state, because
I had a birthday party one timeand I was like, hey, let me
borrow some of your laser lights.
When I was supposed to returnthem, I was like, wait, I could
put these in my massage officeand it would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
And he did think it was awesome.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Well, and he also helped me install speakers in my
massage table so that you couldfeel the sound.
We had laser lights, we hadspeakers in the massage table,
and you know he's real crafty.
So he's like all right, here'swhat we're going to do.
We're going to take theseplastic Tupperware containers.
Those are going to be like ourlittle cups for the speakers.
Use some mom's old cottonbatting that was stashed
upstairs and hot glue orsilicone.
Use silicone so that way itcould vibrate and not fall off

(45:50):
again.
It was that engineering and youguys were just making it happen
.
Well, and speaking of a low-keyengineer for sure, speaking of
his lights, I definitely knowwhat some of my friends favorite
story would be is a buddy ofmine.
He was driving.
I don't know if they still have.
They have these electric golfcarts.
Holler at my girl gainsville,kate, because it was her brother
, austin.
But we were like let's ride out,and so we were gone.
We were off campus.
We were gone, we were offcampus.
We were, I mean, we weredriving across Tallahassee, I
think.
We went up by Seminole bowl, uplike high road, like we were
working this, this charge, andAustin's like dude, we are about

(46:13):
to run out of juice and I waslike all right, my dad lives
over on Sharon and so we go overthere over by Godby and all
that.
We pull up and dad's ready forit.
I mean, we got this is like anextended cab, limo, golf cart,
and we got it loaded up with usand we pull up and he's like
yeah, of course I got anextension cord Plug right in.
We come in and my man just putson a full 1960s light show.

(46:34):
But like also, you know,because he kept it retro and he
was always on the newest stuff,so it had those old like kind of
lava lamp lights that you usedto see and we all just sat there
like, and then it was chargedup when we left and years have
gone by and they're still justlike yeah, your dad is dope, so
that's right but he's so coolbut like with the lights, he won

(46:54):
best neighborhood for christmas, big into that and yeah, I feel
like he was just very animatedin that stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
He liked decorating, he liked lights he liked
animatronics.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Everything at our house moved for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
It's true, but yeah, that's funny what you said.
He was a perfect blend ofvintage but yet always excited
about whatever was new.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
I mean because we always had reel-to-reel players,
8-tracks, vinyl, vhs, but thenalways had the newest stuff too.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, he even rigged his Chevy because he liked to
watch movies while driving.
Again, he cannot get in troublenow, so like we can let some
cats out of the bag that wasdefinitely the first dvd player
I ever saw in a truck yeah, hetook out the center navigation
area and put in a dvd player andhe would watch movies.
I mean, this was probably 20years ago, like yeah, easy.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Oh, I mean, I got pulled over driving his truck
because instead of red guardsfor the brake lights, he put on
clear guards.
And the cop is like that isabsolutely illegal.
I was like look, my dad iscrazy.
Okay, this is not my truck, youknow.
And he's like all right, allright, just go tell him to to
put some red ones back on.
I was like yes, sir yeah,that's what's funny.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
I feel like I couldn't really get in trouble
that much because I was alreadylike the most tame out of all of
y'all at this point.
That's what I'm saying, thoughI would.
I would be doing something withdad and he'd be the one about
to get in trouble like I'd bedriving his car.
We got pulled over.
He's like you gotta switch withme.
I'm like what do you mean?
I'm like 15, what do you mean?
I gotta switch.
He's like get in the driver'sseat.
I'm like okay, so it was likealways roles reversed.

(48:23):
It's like I was always likeshould we be doing that?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Dad's a mechanic.
He had a boy.
He immediately probably thoughtyou were going to take his shop
over, right?
People say that this isliterally what we get.
Y'all didn't have a brother.
Yeah, we had a brother.
He's a badass, but he didn'twant to deal with all of you.
He went very far woosah route.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Yeah, he went very far which, funny enough, in part
came about due to my inabilityto deal with these people on
this phone, because I rememberwhen one of our great employees
and friends who recently passed,when his son passed, y'all had
to go to the funeral and theywere like who's going to answer
the phones?
And missy goes, ryan will,because he will just tell people
straight.
And I was like facts, like Idon't have time for this stuff.
Yo, I didn't break your stuff,I didn't make you wait till the

(49:10):
last minute, like I don't knowwhat you're talking to me about
right now, so you can chill andwait, or what.
And so you know that that leadspeople down certain paths where
they they breathe deep.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
They meditate.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
You know they do massage and not to mention see
y'all got it different too,because y'all are girls.
I'm glad y'all think dad waslike Mr Instructional man.
I'm like, all right, let me fixthis.
I was probably really annoyinglike hyper and blah, blah, blah
and he's like here's what'sgoing to happen.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Man, is you're going to shut up?
And I'm justest to that, thoughthere are certain things that I
was like I want to learn thisDriving the boat.
He would start very strong.
He's like, yes, I will guideyou and I would give him about
45 seconds and he will, I'lljust do it.
So he did not have the bestpatience when it came to
teaching.
He's more of a doer and he didgreat.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Yeah, he's great.
He's a master at everythingthat he did.
See, I am the teacher in thecrew.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
It's true, you are Absolutely.
It's like literally what I do.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Another aspect was because I grew up at an auto
shop in the front of the housewhen I did decide I wanted to
like really do mechanics he'slike to really go mechanic max
three days until I had to beback on the computer and
answering the phones because Iknew how the business side of it

(50:32):
worked and, like everybody else, was a talented mechanic who
this is their profession.
So they went into it and I gotstuck back up front.
Business owning is its ownentire universe and see, I work
for myself.
But like I can't even imaginecorralling all the characters
that have come through Bob'sAuto Repair's doors in the years
, I just don't think I'm reallyequipped to well manage a group

(50:54):
of hard-headed people.
I grew up with all sisters.
I've spent my entire lifeyou're better for it dealing
with hard-headed people.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
You are better for it .

Speaker 3 (51:02):
My blood pressure is higher.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
I officially out salted dad one time that was.
I got it on video too.
I tried so hard.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Mayo has told me to eat more salt.
So shout out, dad.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
I mean I thought he would never die, cause I thought
he was preserved, like youcould sit there and like a slice
of pizza, for instance.
Be like man, I just put a lotof salt on this.
If he did not visually see youput salt on it, he was making it
rain.
At the same time, if he did seeyou put salt on it, he was
still making it rain.
He's like no, no, no, you don'tknow how to salt, like I know

(51:35):
how to salt.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
That's why it was so satisfying.
When he was like a little saltythere, girl, I said yes, it is.
I think I poured like half abottle.
No lie, I did I was like heain't going to eat this one.
I bet you it wasn't vicious.
It was an experiment, all right.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Well, you know, one story I thought about when y'all
mentioned like coming up withthe story is the first one.
It's not like funny or excitingor anything, but it's one I
remember the most is where wewere having like a family
reunion in Navarre, you know,which is what like three and a
half hours away, and it was withall dad's, family and cousins
and all that.
And he came driving over and wewere all already there but then
my mom's dad, who recently justpassed Al Clark he master

(52:16):
fisherman was going to show mesome more fly fishing techniques
, right?
So I called dad and I was like,hey, if you haven't left yet,
will you bring my flyer on?
And he's like, sure, no problem.
Well, come to find out.
He was already halfway toNavarre and he turned around and
so like hours later I'm like,where are you?
He's like I turned around toget that.
You know I'm running late.
I was like, well, why did youdo that?

Speaker 1 (52:35):
he's like you said you needed it, yeah, and I was
like I'm like, well, that'scrazy, you should have just come
on that's one thing that Zachmentioned when he first met me
and I think he I got it from dadis he's like nothing's ever a
huge inconvenience for you,because I think he would
inconvenience us so much likeminor inconveniences that you
then just realize it's like it'sno big deal, like he would just

(52:56):
go drive five hours for you,yeah, like he literally would do
whatever it is that you needed.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
I mean one time when I was in Boy Scouts camping, I
think maybe at Torreya.
I forgot all of my clothes.
I remember the food and thefootball, the most important
things and then he drove myclothes over.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Yeah, he was just the coolest.
I was telling Misty in thebeginning that you just don't
really hear about himcomplaining about people talking
shit about people.
He was just always present.
I don't know, I've alwayswanted to live more like dad in
that way, where he was just heloved life Like he really did.

(53:34):
He loved the people in it.
He loved doing the things.
I mean he lived a verywell-rounded, exciting life,
even the mundane.
I feel like he found cool stuffin it.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Well, I mean, he was about that Puerto Vida life you
know Costa Rica you'd be like yo.
Let me get a hammock and a hut.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Because that's what he taught us, you know, when he
was sick, when he was down, whenhe was out, when a lot of
people would have maybe not hadthe greatest attitude, he always
did.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Yeah, that was the cool thing about dad.
Is you never question how muchhe loved all of us?
Like you just knew, he showedin all kinds of different ways,
like the doorknob.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Getting a motorcycle on top of the roof for Melissa's
Christmas present.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Yes, Santa delivered the motorcycle to the chimney on
the roof.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
I still don't know how he got that motorcycle up
there by himself.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
It was by himself.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
Yes, you know, he weighed like a buck, 20 or
something.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
I assume there was other people involved.
Yeah, no, it was dad himself.
Yes, you know, he weighed likea buck 20 or something.
I assumed there was like otherpeople involved.
Yeah, no, it was dad.
Wow, yeah, I remember I got acall on the landline from Santa
and Santa said it could not fitin the chimney so I had to go
outside.
And all of a sudden we gooutside and dad's doing circles
on the roof.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
Oh yeah, that's true, he was whipping it, he was.
I'm like what the heck?
You see why it's genetic that.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
That dangerous stuff happens.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
You know what I'm saying.
But oh, you know another point.
I wanted to bring this upbecause I was making excuses
that you know it's in the DNAwhy I suck, I mean why I'm all
messed up or whatever, whyyou're the coolest we'll tell
you that?

Speaker 1 (55:02):
why you're the coolest?

Speaker 3 (55:03):
but you know, your son, esley, is totally the
doorknob king and it's funnybecause he's named after, you
know, our dad.
This one time I was over thereand it was way past his bedtime
and like they're putting him tobed, but I was like leaving he's
like all right, good night, bye.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
He's like two at this .

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Literally I would touch the doorknob.
You go, uncle ryan.
I was like what he's like?
and he'd run off, and then I'mlike all right, esley, good
night.
And I touched the doorknob andhe's like all right, I'm like
what's up?
He's like, and literally everytime I touched the doorknob, he
came up with some other way totry to get my attention and I
was like you are just little Bobhuh.
Yeah, I cannot just leave thishouse in peace.
You gotta keep hanging out,which I did, of course of course

(55:40):
you know you can't not.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
I mean, I feel like none of us were ever just like,
anyways, bye.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Yeah, so this is so much fun and I think that you
guys are going to enjoy comingalong on this journey.
Ryan's going to be anotherguest and he's going to bring us
on the whole healing journey Tothe highest level, to the
highest level healing journey,and, yeah, so it's exciting guys
, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
I think, if I know how these things work, you're
supposed to say like, like,subscribe and follow.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Yes, Okay do that.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
Yeah, like subscribe.
Mash the button.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Yeah, we've got Instagram, obviously, our
podcast, facebook, all thethings.
Yeah, follow us everywhere,just not in real life like
stalkers.
Unscripted unedited in reallife like stalkers unscripted,
unedited real life.
Oh, we're gonna get you in itready, okay, unscripted.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Wait, wait, wait.
Okay, definitely all three yeah, okay unscripted, unedited real
life.