Myrl-Memories 4

Myrl Goodwin Gudmundsen Memories 4 - Courtship

Austin Gudmundsen started school at the University of Utah, and he was inducted into the service. Not long after the war ended, a few months later, I was called to fill a mission to the Southern States. On July 19, 1919, I left for Chattanooga, Tennessee. Shortly before that, my Grandfather Anderson passed away. I was glad that it had happened before I had gone. The headquarters of the mission was at Chattanooga at the time, but soon after it was transferred to Georgia at Atlanta. I worked in Chattanooga, Jacksonville in Florida, and made trips through South Carolina and Alabama for conferences. President Charles A. Callis was my Mission President. He later became an apostle.

Austin decided to attend school at the Institute of Technology in Pasadena. His whole family went to California, so he lived with his family in Los Angeles and drove the car to school. We had many interesting letters crossing each other and many homesick times. I still have some of the letters. While in the mission field, I had many wonderful experiences, very faith promoting and some that built up my testimony tremendously. I won’t go into my mission as those days are in a separate report in a diary that I had kept all the time I was in the mission field.

Wanda and Mother came to meet me when my mission was over. I had expected Wanda, but was excited when mother spoke to me at my side. I had my eyes on Wanda and didn’t even see Mother get off the train. As Mother touched my arm I squealed and I was crying, of course, and someone passing by said, "Well, I don’t know who they are, but they sure are happy."

We had a trip through Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and through Washington D.C. etc. While in New York, we wanted to see many things, but we were strangers; so a missionary from the mission was asked to take us around.

We took the subway to the Woolworth Building. At that time, it was the tallest in New York. I started up the steps where we were going to telephone to this missionary. We got into the lobby. It had a huge room where the telephone directories were kept. I thought in my mind, "My, it will take me a long time to find the mission home." As I started to look around and saw the tremendously sized books, there happened to be one that was open, and I walked over to it as it lay before me - and in large black letters, there was the number I wanted to call. I remarked to mother how wonderful it was that the mission headquarters had such a big, fine, black print in the telephone directory. She looked down but couldn’t see what I meant. I wrote down the address and number of the telephone, and as I looked again to see if it was correct, the type was as ordinary as the others.

We went to Niagara Falls after New York, then to Rochester. We went to the Hill Cumorah and had a wonderful experience there where we met Ethel Southwick and had lots of pictures taken. We came through Chicago and then home to Lehi.

I’ll never forget the sight as we came close to our beloved home in Lehi. It just seemed so very small. All I could see was the big smokestack from the factory. But it was so inviting and so very good. All the family were there to meet us.

Austin came home that evening from the University, and we were somewhat ill at ease for a few hours. But it didn’t take long for us to realize that we were very much in love, enough to wear his fraternity pin which he later gave me. My diamond ring was our real binding engagement, and Austin gave that to me very soon after the Phi Delta pin.

Austin and I were married September the 14th, 1921. It was a double wedding as Wanda was engaged to Claude Curtis.

We had a long day in the temple, and it was a beautiful day. I had had my endowments before I went on my mission. It was a very spiritual day. Wanda and Claude were married first by Franklin D. Richards. He was then President of the temple. Then he married us, and he gave us some very wonderful advice. We were too excited to remember it all.

We spent the first night at the Hotel Utah as our wedding reception was the following day. Our parents had decorated the hall until it didn’t look like the High School. The Second Ward was meeting there until they could build their church. It was a lovely reception, and many, many friends and relatives came to wish us happiness.

My brother Stanley drove us to Saratoga to spend the night. He was going to be sure we alluded our would-be pranksters. A brother-in-law, P.O. Loveless, was the ringleader. We were down near the Evans farm when we heard them coming. We jumped out of the car, all five of us, and hid in the bushes with our wedding dresses and all into the mud and everything until they went by. The next morning we left for American Fork Canyon. We pitched our tents on the banks of a beautiful stream and spent the week there for our honeymoon.

University of Utah

Austin and I went to Salt Lake to make our home. We lived in the Eastmond basement apartment on 9th East near the University of Utah where he attended school. The following June, he received his B.S. Degree in Engineering. I spent some time doing temple work in the Salt Lake Temple while he was in school.

We went to Saratoga for the summer where he helped his parents run the resort. In the fall, we moved into an apartment on 5th South, which is Collete Court. We were near the City and County Building where Austin was employed in the engineering department, the Smoke Abatement Division. We had a nice place to live, new furniture, and the church only half a block away. We went to Lehi most every Sunday to see the folks, but we did participate somewhat in our ward organizations.