Funky me photo has a long story I'll try to shorten it... A few years ago, I got BIG. So just before I went on a diet,
I grew a beard. We had an event in our youth group were the leaders would go to Westminster Mall and try to hide
and/or mingle with the others at the mall and we were allowed to dress differently. The teens got points when they
found us. So I put on a hat with a long hair and funky sunglasses, "Billy-Bob" teeth and a biker vest over a dirty T-shirt
and walked around the mall looking pretty weird. It was fun.

Mike and Christy in High School

Mike and Christy at Big Bear

                                         I caught this big Blue Marlin in Cabo, 13 -1/2 ft long and 858 lbs. It took seven and a half hours
                                         to get it up to the boat. About three hours into the fight I wanted to let the fish go, but the captain
                                         of the boat said that if I didn't want it, he would take it. So I went ahead and continued fighting
                                         the fish. I paid a price for it. I got third degree burns on my legs and arms. It was overcast and I
                                         didn't know how much I was getting sunburned.
            
                                        When we got back to the dock with the fish, there were news people there waiting for us. The captain
                                        must have reported that he was bringing in a large catch. They receive good advertisement for large catches.
                                        When we got back to the States, it was in most of the major newspapers and  in the Western Outdoor Sports
                                        magazine. My day in the news. Big whoop! I felt sorry for the fish! We gave most of the meat to the people at the
                                        docks. I made a deal with the "Time Share" we were staying at to give us a couple of free weeks in trade for the fish.
          
                                       They wanted it to mounted and put up in their lobby. They sent it to Florida to be mounted and had a plaque
                                       made up with my name and all of  the info on the fish and the fishing gear used. Well, just shortly after the fish was
                                       completed, (about a year later) the man who  the deal with  me had a major heart attack and died.
          
                                       His wife retired from the hotel business and sold the fish to someone else. I never found out who. So ends the story
                                       of the old man and the sea and his big fish story. Oh well, I still have all of the news papers the story ran in and a copy
                                       of Western Outdoor News.

                                       By the way, not one newspaper told the story correctly, they all embellished the story to make it more interesting.

Christy and I at a Church lunch function

Christy and I at our Senior Prom-night.

                                                                                        My Coast Guard, Boot-Camp Graduation picture.

Some info from Mike:

I really don’t know what you expect from folks like me as far as input goes, so I’ll just send stuff and write
down some stuff and you may edit and purge as you see fit. But I’ll warn you now, as you may have noticed already,
I get very wordy and I try to be creative when I write, so feel free to edit and purge.

I do want to thank you both for doing this. I know it is a lot of work and I appreciate it. I’ve worked in the
Graphics department here at the “bird factory” for just about half of my life and I know that this kind of thing
doesn’t just go together! It takes a lot of time and hard work. So, thank you both for doing this.

Now David shared with us his likes and dislikes. Thank you Dave. My likes may be a little different
than Dave’s, however, his dislikes pretty much parallel my dislikes. So if you want to know a little more about my dislikes,
read Dave’s.  One thing I will add is this whole “Politically Correct” business. Personally, I think that “politically correct”
is an oxymoron. But if something is politically correct and it’s something you can really sink your teeth in,
it must be an oxy-dent. (Sorry about that! Sometimes I just can’t help myself.) 

But I will share with you some things that are irritants. I don’t lose any sleep over these things,
they just kind of get to me sometimes.

Drivers who cut me off and then put on their brakes, people who throw their cigarette butts out the
window of their cars, (our streets are not their ashtrays!) People who flip-the-bird.
It’s just not a nice thing to do.

Things I like and enjoy doing:

A few years ago, Scuba diving was very big on my list of fun things to do. Deep Sea fishing as well.
I caught a big one in Cabo. I’ve done a lot of backpacking trips, some local but mostly in the High Sierra’s.
Golf was a biggie for a while, I still like to golf but I don’t get to go as often as I used to. Presently, music is very
big in my life, not only do I enjoy listening to it, but I am very involved in our praise band at our church. I am
the group’s percussionist (drums, conga and bongos). I love to dance, my wife and I really like to get down and
funky with our country-western dancing but we like to rock-n-roll and do some swing dancing as well. I’ve been a
wood carver for many years, I love that, and it keeps me out of trouble. Christy and I are very involved in our
church and I’ve been the Director of our youth group for quite a few years. Christy and I love to camp, favorite
camping spots are in the High Sierras. And for weekend get-a-ways, we enjoy Cambria and Big Bear.

Life’s Regrets so far:

First off, I really do believe that God has a plan for our lives. He gives us all many wonderful gifts,
one of which is our gift of choosing. Yes, He wants us to consider what He has for us, but He allows
us to choose for ourselves. However, the path we choose may have some consequences that go with it.
I’ve made some bad choices and had to pay for it. Enough said on that. I can say that I’ve never been in
jail or prison. Never had to go to rehab or AA, never did any major hospital time and never had a contract
put out on me by anybody in organized crime. Thank God!

If I had some things to do over, I would start with school. I wish I had applied myself more to my studies.
I would like to have been more aggressive in football and baseball. I would like to have learned to read music.
I wish I wasn’t so shy in my younger years. I think that maybe I missed out on a lot of fun things because of
my shyness. I was very afraid of girls. I just didn’t know how to act around them. Now I’m a total goof ball and
I don’t really care if people think if I’m nuts or just plane crazy.

Later on in life; God gave me a wonderful gift to be creative. It’s been really great working here at
McDonnell Douglas / Boeing for so many years in the graphics department and I’ve learned tons of stuff,
but I’ve often wondered if I would have continued with my education where it could have taken me?

But to be perfectly honest with everybody including myself, God has been very good to us and we aren’t
hurting at all. My best friend in the whole world is my wife, Christy. Between the two of us, we have four
kids, one from Christy’s first time around and three from mine. The kids are all grown up and gone and we did
our best to raise them. Now it’s our turn. Christy and I can chase each other around the house and play tag,
(if you know what I mean). We love to go on dates and dance and we can be out as long as we want, cause
we don’t have a curfew. Thank God we still have our health and we love the Lord.  Friday night is our date night
and we try hard not to let anything or anybody get in the way of us going out and doing something on our night.

We hope to do more traveling in the future, not just the U.S. but maybe Europe and/or maybe the Holy Land.
Someday I hope to write a book. About what you may ask, ah heck, I don’t know, I’ll make up something.
Say good-night Mike…

Hey, God bless you all.

Mike Pierce