LEAVING CAMP AND GOING HOME

We woke up un-molested!  Both of us decided we wanted to pack up and go home.  There is a premonition that can come that seems to say:  It's time to go."   We got back on the Crest Highway and started down. Neither of us said anything for quite awhile and I felt the need to talk.  I would have to talk from the perspective of the year 2012 because that was where I was in time when I was brought back to 1952.  I felt a long rambling talk coming on and I began:  "Bob, I have a number of memories from when I was your age and they are like a few picture frames lifted out of a movie....I forget the movie, but those frames are very vivid....I remember one time my Dad and I went for a ride up Big Tujunga Canyon and the Sun was setting.  Both of us were quiet and the setting Sun came through a side window and shown on my Dad's face.  He started singing the most beautiful song and he had a pretty good voice.  I would give anything to remember what it was that he sang....He died fourteen years ago at age ninety three.  I had to put him in a nursing home.  He loved people and needed to be around them.  He was very senile and it was a blessing because he could not remember that his wife had died the year before.  When I went to see him, he was usually sitting in his wheel chair at the entrance and looking out at the activities in the parking lot.  He frequently said "You are such a good Son"    I did not consider myself a good Son as I could remembert all the times I dis-honored him, disappointed him, did not appreciate him like I should have.  Bob, you are young and have your whole life in front of you.  You need to know this:  Every thing you do and say will be stuck forever in your brain.  Every word and deed will be etched into your memory bank and some day, something will trigger that information and it will come out of hiding and be right there in your face. I wished I had known that back then.  Bob took in my every word and said "Mr. Key, you sound sad, and there are tears running down your cheeks.  I am sorry that you are sad and I wished there was something I could do to make you happy."   "Bob, there is something you can do to make me very happy....never forget what I just told you...treat your Daddy and Mother just like you are building a memory book that you will read when you are old...do the things now that will be lovely memories later."   "Mr. Key....I promise...."    (to be continued)