"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.