Al Jardine, 75, is a founding member of the Beach Boys. The band’s hits appear on “The Beach Boys With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra” (Capitol). He is on his Postcard From California storytelling tour. He spoke with Marc Myers.

My childhood began hundreds of miles from the nearest wave. My family lived in Lima, Ohio, a small and quiet town in the 1940s. Our block was lined with trees, and the smell of raked fall leaves burning still takes me back there.

In Lima, my father, Don, was a master photographer. He took black-and-white images of trains for Lima Locomotive Works. After World War II, his printing expertise was in demand as the defense industry grew.

In 1949, when I was 6, my father took a job with Eastman Kodak and moved the family to Rochester, N.Y. In the early ’50s, he taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Both of my parents loved music. My father played clarinet in college. My mother, Virginia, who went to the same school, the University of Toledo, was an arts major. She also played violin. At home, they had a good collection of pop 78s, and we sang as a family.