Imagining Youth

I came into my Parents' lives later than was customary for that era. I have no memory, for example, of them in their twenties or thirties. I therefore always was fascinated when I heard stories about my Parents' youth. I was excited to learn what a sportsman my Dad had been in Lithuania, particularly in the fields of cross-country skiing and kayaking.

Dad was especially fond of the times he and his father, Vytautas, kayaked the length of the Nemunas River. He derived many stories from this trip, and I sometimes wondered if Dad didn't embellish the facts a bit.

Nemunas River, Lithuania, about 1939. My paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, in the foreground, rests with my Dad during their trip down the Nemunas River. That's a pretty long kayak!

This isn't a great photograph, I know. But it was one of my Dad's favorite snapshots.