Being a neat dad, we all got souvineers from my fathers trip to South Africa. I got a cap with the big five animals on it.

My brother and sister both got T Shirts with the big five on them. It makes sense to me that she got white and he got black. Ever since I can remember, our parents always gave us gifts that were easy to tell apart.

One thing that my father made us do in Branson was watch the second half of a Ken Burns Special about Mark Twain on PBS. During the later part of the guys life he had to do a long speaking tour to retire a number of debts that he had accumulated by living beyond his means and investing in bad ideas. This picture crossed the screen as the narrator explained that Twain was shocked by what white people had done to indegenous tribes all over the planet. I seem to remember a quote that went something like "he thought the American sollution to the problem was much better."

Little girls have a way of keeping you from thinking too much about other things like the end of the road.