Bernice Sayre Gudmundsen

The Memories of Bernice Hattie Sayre Gudmundsen

My parents are Violet and Virgil Sayre. I am the oldest of five children, Bernice, Ruth, Barbara, Virgil, and Linda. We lived in Inglewood, California.

As a little girl, I enjoyed playing with my dolls, doing crafts, and playing with little cars. I knocked tennis balls around in the street.

I had friends I played with. I liked to make things and was very curious; I wanted to know why, what, where and when.

When I entered 2nd grade, I was privileged to be in the harmonica band. We practiced certain days during the noon hour at school. We had to have a Hohner harmonica key of C. This was my first experience with music training other than just singing in class. On special occasions, we played for the PTA and other groups, plus we marched in the Armistice Day Parade through the town of Inglewood. We looked wonderful in our uniforms consisting of white slacks, white shirts, shoes and socks and wonderful satin capes. They were red on the outside and gold on the inside. The gold folded back in front to show itself.

This wonderful beginning gave me a love for creating music. When I was 10, I started taking lessons on the clarinet. I was in a boy’s band and got to play and march in the Rose Parade and lots of other parades. I played duets with a friend at church, primary programs etc. I also played solos a lot. In my teenage years, I did a lot of exhibition ballroom dancing. Fun.

I also took ballet lessons from a Russian teacher and danced in many programs and shows.

We lived close to Hollywood. My mother sometimes took me and my sisters, Ruth and Barbara, to audition for small parts in movies. Barbara wore her hair in curls like Shirley Temple. On a busy sidewalk one day, someone asked Barbara if she was Shirley Temple!

As a girl, I loved my many dolls and my paper dolls. I sewed for my dolls and created exotic costumes for my paper dolls. Some I think were inspired by the comic strip, “Flash Gordon.”

My Grandfather Sayre came to visit us a few times in his old age. He was short, a fact I enjoyed. He taught me to play Rummy with playing cards. We would play for hours.

My Grandmother Horsley taught me spool knitting. My sisters and I would take turns staying at Grandma and Grandpa Horsley’s for a week. I enjoyed being there. Grandma and Grandpa were from England and had a great English accent. I think I use some of it on occasion to this day. They showed me a love for America and taught me about what had to be learned and committed to to become a citizen, which they were. They also had a respect for the English Royalty. Of course, we never spool knitted or sewed on Sunday because Grandmother said if we did, “after we died when we were in the next world, we would have to take every stitch out with our nose.” Sometimes Grandmother would give me an old serving spoon to dig in the sand in their yard. Every night at Grandmas house, we would sit on the back porch and look at the stars. There were many shooting stairs. When the train went by at 8 P.M. we knew it was time to go to bed.

At one point, my mother wanted to give me her doll from her childhood, and I said to give it to my sister because I had lots of dolls. I took good care of my dolls, that’s why mother wanted me to have the jointed china doll. Mother gave it to Ruth, who took it to Grandmas house. Grandma’s big English Shepherd dog jumped on Ruth, startling her and the doll fell and was destroyed. I still feel terrible about that.

It is wonderful to grow up in a family. There is so much one learns from interaction within the family, then extending to the extended family and friends.

The Great Depression

All seemed well. Then I remember hearing my father talking to my mother about who at work got laid off - first, all with service up to 8 years, 10 years, and finally it was 12 years. My father was laid off his job. It was the Great Depression. We lived in a nice 2-bedroom house which had cost my parents $50 down and $50 per month. It was a Spanish style. It had a nice covered porch on the front and quite a large fenced but uncovered patio. My parents could no longer keep the payments up. The owner allowed us to stay there because nobody could afford anything. Rich people lost money and a lot of people like us didn’t have jobs.

My parents ran up a bill at the local market. We raised chickens and rabbits. We sold eggs to the store. They like our eggs because they were good and fresh. We ate chicken on one Sunday and rabbit the next. We sold the rabbit furs.

My father got a government job teaching radio at the school. This was after-school classes. During the depression, people were given jobs at the public schools to teach children. These didn’t cost anything. It was the government’s way to help people out of work. I learned knitting from an after-school work project. I also took a little piano and for a summer, tumbling.

My father sold Watkins products door-to-door. If he made fifty cents a day, that is what we used for food. We always had a vegetable garden. I remember going door-to-door one day selling sweet peas to make a little money. Every little while, my father went to Western Electric to see if he could get his job back. It was several years before he got it back.

There were years when I did not have a warm coat to wear to school. Our shoes could not be replaced, so when a hole went clear through the sole, we would cut cardboard and put it in our shoe. Otherwise we were well dressed because our mother made our clothes.

My mother made our clothes. I remember at an early age, sitting at the sewing machine and hemming flannel diapers for my baby brother when he was expected. I also remember sitting at the dining room table and sewing side seams on piles of underpants for myself and my two sisters. My mother cut the garments from feed sacks. In those days, chicken and rabbit feed came in white or printed sacks so families could use the fabric for clothes. It was during the Great Depression. I gained a great appreciation for sewing. The cost factor plus the chance to create clothes just for me, the color, fabric and style I wanted. It is still a source of creativity in my life.

My mother taught me to crochet and my aunt Bertha taught me to tat. I learned knitting from a work project.

One Christmas, my parents were expecting some insurance money. They cashed in their insurance policies during the depression in an effort to keep us going. The money didn’t come in time and my aunt, my mother’s sister, went out and supplied Christmas for us. I got a small baby doll; I liked it. My mother said it was so small, but that’s what I wanted; I had large dolls. I didn’t know a lot of things until I was an adult, but my father would cry at night because he was having such a rough time not being able to support his family as he wanted to.

Finally he got his job back. I think the Second World War ended the depression. There were many jobs because the young men were all drafted into the armed forces. Women had to go to work to take the jobs created by the war, jobs creating implements of war.

After he went back to work, my father saved packing boxes made of wood. He took them apart and constructed a wonderful playhouse in our back yard. It had three windows and a door. It was a large as a bedroom. In fact, my father lived in it when we were quarantined while my sister had scarlet fever.

War Years

The army moved into Southern California where I lived. I was in High School at this time. The armed forces took over the park. They set up their tents. Long lines of army vehicles arrived in Inglewood; all the vacant lots were taken over by them. The Los Angeles Airport wasn’t there then. There was a much smaller airport. The Air Force took it over. The factories around the airport that manufactured airplanes were covered in camouflage material, so from the air it looked just like vacant terrain.

I was in a club at school, and we were allowed to become a group that was bussed in closed army trucks to the army locations to go to dances. We could not tell anyone where we went or anything about it. I also joined the U.S.O. There was a U.S.O. building in Inglewood. I would just go there to dance with the service men. We were not supposed to date them. I didn’t. One of my friends did and found her husband there.

Barbara, Violet, Bernice, Ruth, Virgil, Linda (little girl)

My father became an air-raid warden. He was given a gas mask. When we had air raid warning, all the lights in the house had to be out. We would huddle in the living room. My mother made black air-raid blinds for the windows. My father would have to be out in the neighborhood making sure no light was showing because an enemy airplane could see even a cigarette. A lot of my high school classmates left school early and joined the services. Their graduation was assured. All men up to 35 years without families and in good health went to war. I had been dating until all the boys left. That is why I enjoyed going to the U.S.O. dances every week or so. I graduated from High School in 1942 at the age of 17 years. I wanted to go to college but my parents felt, as many did, that I should work during the war while jobs were plentiful and go to school later. I lied to get a job - told the Bank of America I was 18. They discovered my true age two weeks before my birthday.

Courtship and Early Years of our Marriage

Well, after the war I met Richard Austin Gudmundsen. I was 21. I had been praying for somebody I could marry. I was afraid my future husband would not come to our ward. I wanted an educated man, somebody with a brain. He moved across the street from me. We became engaged quite soon but waited a year and a half before we married. His mother was afraid he wouldn’t finish his education if we got married and started our family.

We married in the St. George Temple. Dick had graduated from college but had planned on a doctorate degree since he was a little boy. I didn’t want to destroy those plans, so I continued on working for five more years to support us while Dick went to school.

Our Family

Then we started our family. What a joy when that first little beautiful baby girl was born. What a wonderful experience. We had six children and loved every one, three boys and three girls. We were so blessed. Now we have twelve children because all are married and we will soon have twelve grandchildren. Just imagine, nine boys and three girls. (Note: There were eventually 13 grandchildren.)

I have felt the spirit of Heavenly Father or the Holy Ghost. The first time I told the story of Dick’s father meeting Heber J. Grant and being ordained or set apart as Branch President and showed the picture of Heber J. Grand and my husband as a little boy. On the way home that wonderful calm, warm, lovely feeling came over me as if, “You did a good job.”

Senior Years

I am happy. I do extractions for the church. I sew, that is my “thing” now. I like to do creative things. I make all my own clothes and do other creative sewing. I am pleased with all my children. They are all good people and an asset to society. I wish them all well and know they can overcome whatever trials they will be required to face with the help of our Heavenly Father. I love all my children, their spouses and my grandchildren.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional details added by her daughter, Joyce Richardson.

My mother, Bernice, served in the church as a primary teacher, then later as a Cub Scout den mother. She planned wonderful activities for the boys and helped them pass off the advancement requirements. Then she went on to be a Stake Cub Scout leader and trained ward cub leaders. After many years of work in scouting she was awarded the Silver Beaver - the highest award for Scout Leaders.

She loves to sew and sewed dresses and other things for us. We were always very well dressed. At Easter, all of us always had new dresses and outfits. She always gave us wonderful birthday parties with all our friends. She is a very talented lady.

1947 2001