I agree that it would be nice for our parents to pull us aside and tell the stories. And it would be equally nice if the kids cared.
But the thing that drives me batty are unknown photos. It costs nothing to write who the people are on the back, and the event or date if known. And maybe you can't get a kid to physically sit down and listen to the tale about the photo, but they can always read the back of it after you're gone.
Among the many things we've brought out of FIL's storage unit are many, many photographs. Some have writing on the back, but others are just lost to history. Even FIL didn't know who these people were, and begged his mother to write on the backs during her life, but she didn't. Maybe she didn't know either -- most are "carte de visite" pics, or tintypes pasted into cardboard frames, so they go back quite a ways. But what a treasure of knowledge, lost forever.