My father took this photo of me 30 years ago. He raised my sister and I in the sand dunes of Cape Cod.

We lived in a one-room shack, no electricity, phone, or plumbing. We cooked food on a small gas range and had a kerosene stove to keep the place warm until we fell asleep. It got very, very cold in winter.

In the morning my dad would give my sister her bottle (she's 3 years younger than me) in the back of the Jeep while I drove over the dunes to the highway. I was 7 then, could see over the dash and knew how to lock the hubs when we switched to 4-wheel drive. The Commando was a cool green Jeep. The only way to make it through the sand was to let lots of air out of the tires.