Bad Planning

Ashleigh and Amber scanned a stack of letters that Dad sent home to his parents while he was at college.  He often gave a report on his finances.  This one from his freshman year stood out to me.  It seems to be from the beginning of the year.  I thought it was really funny because he had such a good sense of humor about it.  He was very detailed and commented on everything he bought during the month.  This month was funny because he said, "I spent an excess of $36.  This is quite ridiculous and shows bad planning....I assure I have repented of this and put down a strict budget for November."  I also love that he mentions spending money on dates, one of which included tickets to see Saturday's Warrior.  I can't quite make out what he highlights after detailing the date, but it almost looks like the word atrocious.  If so, I wonder if that is describing the date or Saturday's Warrior.

Calvin Photo Slideshow

Where Calvin lived at BYU

We were looking through letters that dad wrote when he was at BYU and newly married.  Below are the various addresses that he resided at:

Freshman Year (1977):

Mission (1980): 

9501 Greenback Lane

Fulsom, CA 95630

Sophomore Year ( 1980/81):

R502 Deseret Towers

Provo, UT 84601

Junior Year (1981):

755 N 100 E #311D

Provo, UT 84601

Senior Year (1982):

321 N 300 E 

Provo, UT 84601

Scoutmaster

Calvin was the scoutmaster in our ward when we had 3-4 young children. It seemed to me like he was always going out to have some fun camping while I stayed home with the little ones. He was so proud of being an Eagle Scout and wanted each young boy to have that opportunity.

Tying my shoes

I was tying my shoes today and mom asked me where I learned to tie my shoes because it apparently was an odd way to do it. I don't remember learning how to tie them, but I realized I basically do it all with my right hand while the only thing I do with my left hand is hold the left loop. I guess it would make sense that Dad taught me how to tie my shoes because he probably held the left loop with his mouth while doing the rest with his right hand. I know he used his mouth to assist in the tying of my shoes at least. So, I guess the way I tie my shoes is a living legacy of him? I'll say that it is.

Playing in the Pool

I've always thought this was kind of a funny picture. Everyone is attacking Dad while Jeff is floating like a dead man in the water and I'm staring at all the weirdos. haha. It also always reminds me of how much Dad loved us and enjoyed playing with us. One of my few memories is of him playing baseball with my brothers in the backyard. I thought my dad was so cool because he could play baseball with one arm and I thought it was great how much he liked to play with us. I also remember a treehouse that we had in the backyard too. Did Dad make that, or am I making that up?

Baptism

This is one of the pictures that I was given of Dad so I wanted to post it.  I remember a few things about my baptism.  I got baptized at the chapel that was for the Jurupa 4th ward.  The zipper on the jumpsuit was broken so I wasn't completely comfortable during the meeting.  I think that a few of us siblings sang a song.  Jeff Pratt gave a talk about his baptism day and that there were fireworks because it was the 4th of July.  There was a big party at our house afterwards with aunts and uncles and cousins.  I remember before getting baptized that Dad told me that it would be a little different because he had only one hand.  Usually you hold onto the left wrist of the person who is baptizing you.  This allows you to be lowered in more easily.  Dad said that because he didn't have a left arm I would have to just plug my nose and trust that he would catch me with his right arm to lower me in.  He reassured me that he had done it plenty of times and that it would be very easy.  I trusted him and everything went very smoothly.

Fast Offerings

I remember that Dad was really excited when I turned twelve because I would finally be a deacon.  He loved to take me to the priesthood meetings and was really excited when I could finally sit with him in priesthood opening exercises.  When I turned twelve I could also start collecting fast offerings.  I would pick up the blue envelopes for my route every fast Sunday and Dad would drive me around to all of the houses.  One time I got the route that included our neighborhood.  I was a little nervous because it turned out that some of our neighbors that I knew had at one time been active members of the church.  Even our next door neighbor was a member.  As we walked around the neighborhood I was surprised at how willing everybody was to talk to us and to make donations.  I remember one time I had a route that included a house by Jurupa Valley High School.  The family at the house was very inactive and didn't seem to happy to have us stop by.  I don't remember how it happened, but we ended up in their house.  We stayed there for about an hour as Dad talked to them about the gospel.  It felt very much like we were missionaries teaching a discussion.  All we were supposed to do was collect fast offerings, but Dad took the opportunity to help strengthen the family by teaching the gospel.  Going around to collect fast offerings with Dad was excellent preparation for my mission as it allowed me to get practice knocking on doors and talking to people who sometimes weren't very excited to see people from the church.  Dad was always encouraging and helped me to have a good time as I fulfilled my priesthood responsibility.  Some of the times that I have felt Dad the nearest is when my younger brothers or I are progressing in the priesthood and participating in priesthood meetings.  I know that these are important steps in our lives that Dad cares a lot about and wants to be a part of.        

Calvin played the trumpet in Austin High School Marching Band. He loved music and even took his trumpet the college with him.

Another random memory... He would show me his profile and say," Don't you think I have a prominent nose?" He thought that was a great feature he had.

To bring in some extra money I substituted a couple of days a week. I preferred the High School as "Mr. Pierce" was the one most of the kids had as a math teacher. Because the kids respected him, they behaved for me. Each day he would tell the kids "Mrs. Pierce is subbing for ... and you better be nice to her or you will get it from me!" They knew he loved them but was serious as he loved his wife also.

I vaguely remember a trip we took out to Utah. There was a crazy rainstorm, so we had to stop at a hotel in either Nevada or Utah. I was happy we got to stop because I was then able to dive into the treat that we had-yogurt with sprinkles. I know this memory doesn't necessarily have to do with Dad, but it's a memory I have of when Dad was still alive.

Kind of random, but Calvin said he usually received inspiration while in the shower.

When Spencer was just a little baby we took a trip to the San Francisco area. WE went to visit my former roommate and her husband. They lived in Alameda. We decided to go to China Town for dinner. It seemed like there were not very many children around and everyone stopped us to "look" at the baby. We sat down to order and the waitress commented how cute Spencer was. She looked at Calvin and then exclaimed "How did you do that with one arm?"(meaning have a baby). Almost in unison we all answered," It doesn't take two arms!" We had quite a laugh about that.

Calvin had a swimming pool at his home while growing up. He always told the story of how he learned to swim. His dad and brother threw him in the middle of the pool and yelled"now swim".

For his Eagle Project he recovered all the seats in the choir loft at church. This building always held a special place in his heart as his grandfather was the first bishop in that building. Scouting was very important to him and one thing he treasured was going on the worldwide scout Jamboree. I believe it was in Finland. He loved that experience.

Hugs and Kisses

Dad was a very affectionate person.  He would always hug us and hold us when we were kids.  He always made sure that we gave Mom a hug and a kiss before we went to bed.  I think that his family was very physically affectionate because his siblings always give good hugs when they come to visit.  I remember that Uncle Glade called them abrazos.  However, Mom doesn't always appreciate public displays of affection.  I remember one time when Dad kissed Mom while they were in the kitchen in our house in Riverside.  Mom tried to push him away because she felt awkward because all of us kids were in the room, but Dad wouldn't have it.  He held tight, kissed her and said, "I want my kids to know that I love my wife".

British Isles

I remember that Dad made a list of goals he wanted to accomplish before he died.  He made it shortly before he passed away and had it hanging on the wall in the office by the computer.  I want to say that he had about 10 goals on the list.  They were all ambitious goals that would have taken a lifetime to achieve.  I think that Dad always had great aspirations in all aspects of his life and had confidence that he could achieve great things.  I remember only one thing on the list, and it was to take the whole family on a trip to the British Isles.  I think I remember this goal because I thought that isles was a fun word, and I had no idea why he wanted to take us there.  Now that I am older, I would guess that he had this goal because he wanted to visit all of the Pierce family history sites with his family.

Stake Softball Game

Although Dad had only one fully functional arm, he was still very active and enjoyed playing sports. I was always impressed at what we was able to accomplish with only 1.25 arms. I remember him teaching me how to swim and I also remember going to stake softball tournaments. I remember him playing pitcher. He would pitch with his right arm while dangling his glove over his small non-functional arm. I don't exactly recall how he transferred the glove from his left arm to the right one ( for some reason I remember him flipping it off of his bad arm and somehow getting it onto his right arm). However he did it, I was always extremely impressed at how positive he always was with his bum arm. I never once heard him complain about it. He played basketball with us and did basically everything, so his disability never seemed much like a disability, but more like a challenge.

"Friends"

One of the most"annoying" things about Calvin was his definition of "friends". After we got engaged, we would walk across campus and he would keep stopping because he wanted me to meet his "friend". They truly seemed interested in what he had to say. He was loved by everyone and I think people liked being around him because he made people feel good. I can't even imagine having as large of a circle of friends as he did. Some of you kids have inherited that quality from him. Don't ask me who. :)

Visiting Chino High School

I remember visiting Dad a few times at Chino High School where he taught. One of the most memorable times was when he played in a charity basketball game with celebrities.  There were quite a few famous people there.  I remember the guy who played Carlton in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was there and was a pretty good player.  The actress who played Punky Brewster and one of the actors from Saved by the Bell were also there.  All of us kids loved going.  It was easy to tell that Dad was loved by many of the students there.  There was a lot of cheering for him.  All of the students would get really excited when they found out we were his family.  I remember feeling almost famous whenever we would visit him on campus.  I think his jersey for the game said "The One-Armed Bandit" on the back.  Dad wasn't embarrassed about having only one arm.  Instead, he allowed it to be something fun for everybody.  I remember him being pretty good at basketball for having one arm.  I remember him being pretty active around the court, and he could shoot okay if he had enough time to setup his shot.  This game must have taken place around Christmas because there was a party after the game for family to meet the stars and Santa was there. 
 

Sewing Machine

When I first started dating Calvin,we were visiting my parents and grandma needed her sewing machine taken to the car to get repaired. Calvin lifted it up on one shoulder and grandma gasped
because it was an expensive machine. He made her nervous until she got used to him being able to do so much with one arm.

BYU Fan

Calvin was an avid BYU fan and we rarely missed a game. The fall after Spencer was born I was working in Catering and we would take Spencer in his carrier and tuck him under the seat of the stadium. I would join the family after I was done working( abt1/3 ) into the game. I am sure that is why Spencer is such an avid fan. When we moved to Calif, often we would go to the stake center and watch the games. Sometimes we were the only ones watching.

Always a Missionary

I remember that Calvin was always a missionary. He would not discuss religion during school, but the kids and teachers knew he was Mormon. He would keep pamphlets about the church in one of his drawers and if the kids had questions, he would tell them to come after school and he would share the gospel with them. Many students and fellow teachers came to his memorial in Calif and learned more of the Plan of Salvation. He always wore his religion on his sleeve.

My short memories

I don't really have any stories of Dad growing up because he died when I was only six. One thing I do remember is that Dad played this Spiderman computer game with us. On the game you could record your voice. Dad recorded himself singing the Spiderman theme song. After Dad died I loved listening to it because it reminded me of what his voice sounded like. From what I remember, Dad and Spencer have very similar voices. I don't know what happened to that recording or the game, but I know I was sad when I realized we had misplaced it.

The rest of my memories were little random ones like being amazed that Dad could tie my shoes with just his one hand and sometimes his teeth too. I remember watching him wrestle with my brothers in the living room. I remember him playing games (Sega I believe) with us, or rather my older brothers; I don't think I've ever been good at video games.

Probably the most important memory that I have involving Dad was when Marc and I got married. Previous to the sealing, I was having a hard time with the fact that Dad wouldn't be there-at least physically. I knew that his spirit would be there, but I didn't realize how much I would feel his presence there. When the sealer mentioned that there were angels there that cared very much for us I teared up and didn't stop weeping until quite a while after the sealing was over and I gave hugs to everyone there. Knowing that Dad was there with us added so much more to my experience of being sealed to my eternal companion.

Nervous Police Officer

I remember on one of our trips to Utah, we were driving through Ephraim and got pulled over for speeding. The officer asked Calvin to roll down the window and hand him registration etc. I was going through the glove box looking for the info as Calvin continued talking to the officer with his right hand moving as it often did when he talked. The officer was getting nervous and said,"Mr. Pierce, you are making me nervous. Would you please slowly raise your left hand? It has been suspiciously still. (He was afraid of a weapon). Calvin and I both laughed as he proceeded to lift his prosthesis. The officer was visible embarrassed and he apologized. We did not get a ticket.

Glacier Park Cabin (August 1991)

One nice thing about dad being a high school teacher was that he wasn't as busy during the summer.  I do remember that he often taught summer school to make some extra money during the summer.  He must have had some time off during the summer of 1991 because we took an awesome trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.  I remember on the trip that we visited one of mom or dad's old friends in some town in Montana.  We stopped by their home for a while (maybe stayed the night).  I think we also visited some cousins that lived in a very rural area.  We played in this small and dirty pond that they had out back.  We kids always wanted to go back to visit them and their pond.  It seemed that we were always visiting friends or family  during our road trips.  We made this trip in our red minivan.  We loved singing along to music during long road trips.  Some of our favorite music to sing to was The Beach Boys,  Barry Manilow, and musicals such as Newsies.  I remember that dad had a good voice and had fun singing loud with us.  I remember stopping the car on the side of the road to observe the glacier-filled mountains which were really green which was beautiful in contrast to the white of the glaciers.  There was a squirrel that was very friendly and would come up really close to us so we could feed him.  We went on hikes and enjoyed playing on the fallen trees in the forest.  Below is a picture of the cabin we stayed in while we were there. 

Dad, Ashleigh and Spencer (August 1991- Our Cabin)

What is The "Memories of Calvin William Pierce" Blog All About?

Lately it has seemed like dad has come up frequently in various conversations.  It was really great to hear some new stories from Aunt Lianne at Ashleigh's wedding in October and to hear her perspective on him as his older sister.  Also, this past week when Tanner was here we talked about dad quite a bit and it was really fun to share the memories that we have of him.  Our conversations also made me realize that my memory is beginning to fade and I thought this might be a nice place where we could all share the memories that we have of dad. Hopefully we'll also be able to hear new stories we'd never heard before to help us piece together a better picture of him.  In addition to my memory fading, I have found that the photos I have of dad are beginning to fade as well.  I think this blog could also be a nice place to scan in all the pictures we have spread across the family for all of us to see and save.
The stories posted can be however short or long, significant or insignificant, anything that you may remember is worth sharing, we'd all love to hear it.  One thing that I think would help with read-ability would be to separate our entries by distinct stories/events/topics instead of one long entry so that you can find a story by the blog entry title. 

Hopefully this can be a place where when you have that random memory of dad, you can come and jot it down quickly so we can all remember it together.  I very much look forward to hearing what you remember of dad, I always love hearing new stories about him.  I have added just siblings and mom as authors initially, but plan on extending the author list to extended family and friends once we get some entries going.  Feel free to pass this on to anybody you think might be interested, the blog is public.  You can also have them send their pictures/entries directly to me and I can enter them into the blog if they prefer. I love you all and am thankful for such a wonderful family, especially our wonderful dad who loved us all so warmly.