Austin - Drenched with Beer

Austin Gudmundsen

The Day Dad Came Home Covered with Beer
AND MORE STORIES

by Richard Gudmundsen

In the early 1930s, Milwaukee water was drawn from lake Michigan at a point much too close the raw sewage discharge region. As a result, people were told to boil their water whenever a storm stirred up the lake water as simple chlorination did not kill all the bugs. Those who did not do so frequently contracted dysentery. Gudmundsen-Stratton Laboratories main business was water treatment systems for hotels and industrial plants using a lot of water. This included all the big breweries.

The Milwaukee ward held Priesthood Meeting at 8:00 o’clock, Sunday School at 10:00 o’clock, and Sacrament meeting at 6:00 o’clock PM. Austin Gudmundsen was at that time the Bishop of the ward.

About 2:00 in the afternoon one Sunday, Dad was called to the phone. It seems that the man who serviced the companies with GSLabs equipment on Sunday was sick and called Dad to go to the Blatz Brewery. Dad left in a hurry still dressed in his Sunday best. About two or three hours later his car came back into our driveway and a sorry apparition emerged. It was Dad soaked from head to toe in foul smelling beer!

While he was fixing a leak in a high-pressure beer line, the pipe burst spraying beer all over the room. Some thousand gallons of beer were lost until the correct valve was found. That day went down in family history as “The Day Dad Came Home Covered with Beer.”


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Closing the Meeting

By Richard A. Gudmundsen

Austin was sitting with his family in Sacrament Meeting. He had had little sleep over the past several days and fell asleep during the opening song. The bishop had not assigned anyone to give the opening prayer. He stood up after the hymn and asked Austin if he would give the opening invocation.

Austin’s young son Stanley, never one to miss an opportunity such as this, elbowed his sleeping dad and quickly whispered that the bishop wanted him to give the closing prayer. Austin walked to the podium a promptly closed the meeting. The bishop then had to re-open the meeting with another prayer!

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The Great Horseman

By Richard A. Gudmundsen

Bernice and I went to Mamouth one summer shortly after we were married, and stayed in the same campground as Dad, Mom, Ruth, and Stan. It was on Twin Lake a short distance from the bridge. We had a great time together: went swimming at Hot Creek, fished the lake and various streams, had campfire programs where we sang together while I played the guitar, and went on side trips to the many points of interest around there.

One day, Dad, Ruth, and I decided to take horses to Garnet Lake. (I don't recall why Stan did not go with us). At that time we were able to take horses out without having to have a "guide wrangler" along. We traveled to the Lake without incident, fished a little, took some photographs, and came back down toward the stable located on Lake Dorothy.

As we came down through Cold Water Campground, Dad's horse ran away toward the stables at a furious gallop! Dad was caught completely off guard, and the fishing creel bounced with increasing amplitude as his pant's belt suddenly caught on the saddle horn, and he came down with a bang onto the saddle each stride of the horse. As he tried in vain to extricate himself from the difficult and embarrassing situation, reels, fish hooks, leaders, and fly boxes began to exit the creel one by one through the camp ground. People scurried right and left out of the way of the flying horse. Dad finally got his belt off the horn and pulled the horse to a rearing stop on his hind legs, right in the middle of some man's camp. Dad final cry in great anguish was "Woah! Woah! You dumb @%@!!!". Just then a small man emerged hurriedly from the tent, looked up at Dad and said, "Why hello, President Gudmundsen". He turned out to be Dad's Executive Secretary in the Inglewood Stake! I don't think that Dad ever found all of his lost gear, and he was ribbed in presidency meetings from then on as the "Great Horseman." However, Dad was lucky that he was not injured or even killed in the incident.