On my best days, I fancy myself a combination of Dad's persistence/patience and Mom's toughness/skepticism.

My dad left when I was 3 1/2, and he left my mom and I.

Those were the great days of excavating... anything to which a fancy was taken, from a scarab to an obelisk, was just appropriated, and if there was a difference with a brother excavator, one laid for him with a gun.

my mom and dad, the upbringing we had.

Mom [Valerie] and Dad would like to be around their grandchildren.

My mom wanted to show my dad any idiot could do it.