Myrl - Memories 2

Myrl Memories 2

Myrl Goodwin Gudmundsen

Myrl's memories of Wanda Goodwin, Uncle Andrew Trane, Andrew Rasmus Anderson, Mariane Pederson Anderson, and Arleen Goodwin

Wanda and I used to go down to Uncle Andrew’s farm (Andrew Trane, Gladys Southwick’s husband) down on Utah Lake. It was quite a long way to walk, but we'd go down there and have such a good time with Maesa. We loved to go down on the lake, and Vernon and Leland and my brother, Harold, would take us out in a boat on Utah Lake. I remember one time we got out quite far and a wind storm came up. They had quite a time getting us in to the shore before we were blown clear out.

There were a lot of little things about it that we loved. Our Grandfather Anderson down there had a vicious bull, and we were scared to death to ever go near that fence.

But our Grandfather wasn’t a bit afraid. He’d take a pitchfork with him and he’d yell at him, and that way he could go anywhere in the corral or around there. But nobody else could; we all steered clear of that part of the farm.

Grandfather had some wonderful apple trees. I never knew what kind they were, but they were big, red ones. We used to just founder on those big red apples. We had apples on our own lot, but they weren’t quite like Grandpa’s.

Wanda and I used to go down to Grandmother Anderson’s. We’d have to wash the dishes in her cupboard for her. She would always reward us with something. I remember that sometimes she would let us go into the grapes and we’d take a lot of grapes. Grandpa didn’t like us to pull the grapevines down, but Grandmother wasn’t so particular. So she’d say, "Your Grandfather’s gone down to the barn, now run out and get all the grapes you want." And we used to do that. She’d always have what she called "frikadellers" (Danish meat patties) in her cupboard. My, were they good! I remember after we finished doing the dishes and cleaning them up nice, we’d always have some cold frikadellers, and I can still taste them to this day! Nothing seemed to taste the same.

Grandmother was, of course, from Denmark, so was Grandfather. They were wonderful grandparents and very, very kind and good to all of us. They were devoted to my mother as she was the only living girl in Grandmother’s family. She had two brothers, but the girl was very choice to them. My mother used to get our surrey. She’d hitch up the horse and go down for my grandmother every day except Saturday and Sunday. It was just a ritual. Everyone would remark at how good my mother was to her mother, and we loved her for it, and we loved Grandmother and Grandfather. As I said, we were a very happy family, and we loved one another, and the gospel was taught and instilled into our lives and we never forgot it.

We had what we called home evening once a month before I was married. We’d get together the family and we’d sing and sit around our dining room table. We’d have peanuts and everything else. We’d sit and laugh and tell stories and enjoy the evening immensely. I remember that when I started going with Austin, he used to come over on those home nights because he loved to be with us. We had such a good time together as a family. Then as the years went by, the home evening was established once a week, but that wasn’t until years later. But it was a wonderful thing in our family. It kept us very close together. We were loved and understood one another’s problems. We’d help clean up and have prayer, and we’d always have to take our turn having our evening prayer. Sometimes we didn’t like to do it, and we’d try to get up to bed before it was our turn. But Daddy would call us back and say, "Come on back here, it’s your turn to pray tonight." But we managed, and I’m sure the Lord blessed us.

I remember that we had a little lamb, and how we loved to get that lamb and sit on it and ride. It would only let Arleen come near it because it knew she would always pet it, and it would always come around Arleen because it loved her too.

Then I remember once this "Little Joe" tree, that I was upstairs and I heard a crashing of a branch and screaming. And it was Arleen, and she was falling down out of that Little Joe tree. I ran down the steps and out after her. I remember that I tried to carry her into the house. And I’ve often thought of that and wondered if that had something to do with the hip injury she had and had to have a hip replaced in later years.