By Pat Doody
All American Tire
Business Spotlight
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Picture from left. Daniel Almaraz, Robert Curtin, Ann Curtin, Al Anders, Abel Almaraz.
The week after the 4th of July of this year, Robert and Ann Curtin took over ownership of All American Tire on Tehachapi Boulevard and turned it into the All American Automotive Center, a full service auto repair shop. Robert explained that this is to be their retirement business. Robert has worked on and rebuilt cars and motors since he was in high school as a hobby and also as a mechanic in auto repair shops. For quite a while he had it in his mind to return to auto repair.
About 30 years ago, work took Robert to Hawaii where he met Ann. Ann was raised on Oahu and said that she worked for the State of Hawaii for over 20 years. In Hawaii, Robert worked as a mechanic and then in construction. He started a very successful business developing estimates for construction contractors. However, when his father in Tehachapi was taken ill, he and Ann returned to the mainland in order to look after his father and manage his ranch of mostly Arabian horses. There was a herd of 12 horses at the time. Robert eventually inherited the ranch that has now grown to 17 horses and boarders. Robert was a farrier for many years and said that the back-breaking work finally took its toll. The Curtin's kids and grandkids are in the area as well so they are not going anywhere.
Robert and Ann are very excited about their new venture. Assisting them a couple of days a week is their family friend Al Anders. They also kept the mechanics who had worked at All American for the last seven years, Daniel and Abel Almaraz. Robert said that doing business in Tehachapi has "been a lot of fun. We've had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people."
"It's fantastic," exclaimed Ann.
"We really want to take good care of our customers," added Robert. "We want to be the kind of place where people want to send their parents to."
When asked if they have any future plans for the business, Robert said that he has some extra space in the back and at some point would like to do some yard-art restoration – but that is really in the future.
