I read the old FE forum but never posted. Tom is about 7 years younger than me. I knew he was relating stories told to him, so I kind of enjoyed the read. He was , and probably still is friendly with Bill Stroppe's son. Tom is a great "talker", but also a good "listener", with a pretty good memory. His father was the long time city engineer for Long Beach, so he got around and met people, and he could talk. So the stories were related to him and he passed them on. Unfortunately he tried to make it seem he was "there" and lived those moments as an employee of Stroppe's, which was not true. It got ugly when he got defensive about the Joe Weatherly accident at Riverside, Joe driving a Stroppe Mercury was killed. Doctor Craft got into a spat with Tom , then it got ugly. However I do believe, that Tom related the stories, well ,and they are pretty much what he was told, minus the embellishments of him actually being there as an employee during that time. I also have to say he was always friendly when you met him, and yes, he could talk.