July 10th - Stories

Here are a couple more stories that have been shared:

From Max Blair, Dad's Brother:

"One night, about 9:00 PM after walking home from Mutual (Young Men/Women) I noticed Carl was standing outside the Seminary looking in the windows of a room that for some reason had the lights on at that time of night. Curious, I went over to see what was going on. Just before I reached him, Carl suddenly backed away from the window, whistled loudly, and started running towards the field of the High School. I ran after him and we lay down in the grass about 250 feet from the seminary. I asked Carl what was going on. He said Chris was on top of the seminary and explained they were upset with that seminary teacher and Chris had gone on the roof to put newspaper on the skylight in the teacher's office, but the teacher was there. He also said they'd planned to put a dead fish in his car as well.

While we were watching, several police cars pulled up to the seminary with their lights on and the officers got out. We figured it not a good idea to hang around so we cut through the subdivision nearby and walked around and came up the street to the seminary. When we got there, there were more police cars and a crowd of people gathered around watching. We walked up to a lady in the crowd and innocently asked what was happening. She said they thought they had captured the guy who'd escaped from prison that day. We just quietly went home without saying anything else.

Carl, talking to Chris later, said when the police saw Chris, fortunately, one of the officers was one of their priesthood advisors who knew them well. As soon as he recognized Chris, he said "Where's Carl?" knowing Carl had to be involved. Chris told him Carl had thrown his wrist rocket (flipper) on the seminary and he had just gone up to get it. The officer, who's father incidently was our Bishop and the district attorney, didn't believe Chris and said they'd go talk to Carl and see if the stories matched. Chris told him the officer took Chris right up to our door before he stopped and let Chris go."

From Anna Hall, Dad's niece and Max's Daughter:

One silly simple story I thought of was at my house you ate all your food off your plate, and if you didn't you weren't allowed to get down from the table. One birthday party at your house we had something I didn't like. I was stuck at the table and trying to figure out what to do, (I'm guessing I was 8 or 9, it was your Clearfield home). Carl came up and told me to throw my food away and put the dishes in the sink. I wide eyed told him I'd get in trouble. He told me, "This is my house and I make the rules, now get up, scrape your plate and put it in the sink" I was nervous and started to move but was still hesitant. I remember he put his hand on mine and scraped the food into the garbage with me. I remember he then said, "see, that was easy, now go play".

I remember almost smiling because he was kind enough to help me and because if I was in trouble I could say that Carl MADE me. :)

Another simple story:

It was a lava family reunion a few years ago, we were doing pancakes I think. People were standing around trying to decide something and I came in and just bossed people around and made assignments and got everything going. He was chuckling and I said, "What? Was that too harsh?" and he laughed and said something to the fact that I was born with my bossy stubborn attitude and that it was God given. That I was to never to be ashamed of it and to use it as necessary. I made a comment about how it doesn't get me too many friends and he said he understood all too well but to keep on being me because it's what I was born with. 

This is what is unique about Carl. Even when I am not that pleasant he found a way to encourage me and make me feel good about myself. This is why everyone loved Carl. He could be making fun of you or your mistakes and yet make you feel good at the same time. 

I like to think I have a little of Carl inside of me. I will miss him so much."