I'm sorry your father died when you were so young. That's not right, and yet how few of us are able to live classical lives.

I can remember several trips with my parents during WWII and shortly thereafter. I remember them is little segments, not the beginning, middle or end.

Once, on a train with my mother, I remember her cutting an apple in half with a string. I've tried that myself and never been able to do it. Must have been a strong thread, and maybe she used a pencil or something to tighten it up.

On another my dad told me how when he was a kid they would catch coyotes and turn them inside out - reach down their throats, grab the base of the tail, and pull hard. Offered to show me on the very next coyote we saw. We didn't see another coyote the entire way. Oh, I did, but we didn't. Very frustrating.

On that same trip we stopped at a gas station, I believe in the Nevada desert. There was a post with an iron pipe nailed to it. Look through the pipe and see Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. It didn't occur to me that I'd hike up that mountain 5 times, and sleep on top 4 of those.

I think kids can become bored easily, and forget that which bores them. "Are we there yet?" is a common plaint.

Like you, there is so much more I wish I remembered, a lot of it the people. My sisters, my parents, relatives, but apparently the neurons were needed for something else.