As an adult, Laura Goff always wore her long hair pinned up, neatly out of the way for her many chores. I didn’t know here in her early days, just from the old photos.
When I was a child, she lived with my Grandma Leora, who was her oldest daughter. She had short hair then, mostly non-descript. But there are some photos of her with interesting waves and swirls. I finally figured out why, and when, she got her hair cut for the first time.
Laura’s son Jennings married Tessie after he returned from WWI. Their first child was a daughter named Maxine. In 1924, Tessie gave birth to a son. They both came down with mumps and Tessie died when Merrill was just four days old.
Jennings and his youngsters moved in with his parents (Sherd and Laura Goff), although Maxine and Merrill stayed with Tessie’s folks as well. They attended school in Dexter during the 1930s, living with Laura Goff after Sherd’s death in 1930.
Brothers Jennings and Merl Goff had bought gravel trucks while living at Dexter, using the Goff home as collateral. But as the Depression deepened, they couldn’t keep up with the payments. Their youngest brother, CZ (Clarence Zenas) Goff, had a heating and cooling business in Omaha. He offered them jobs and a place to live, including their mother Laura, also Maxine and Merrill, who were teenagers then.
So Maxine and Merrill attended high school in Omaha. Maxine decided she’d like to go on to beauty school. Was that idea sparked by her Aunt Leora saving a botched haircut by her Grandfather Sherd?
Maxine practiced on her grandmother! I’d guess that she gave Laura her first haircut, and practiced all kinds of styles on her. When it was time for Maxine to take her practical tests, Laura was her model.
“Omaha, Oct-12, 1939
“Dear Folks, [Laura to Clabe and Leora at the Minburn farm]
“. . . I am going out to Lincoln [Nebraska] tomorrow to be Maxine’s model. She has been here all week working some every day on my air and face and hands. She says lots of the girls have models old as I am. Merl is taking us in the car. . . Love, Mother”
“Omaha, Nov. 1, 1939
“Dear Folks, [Laura to Clabe and Leora]
“Well Maxine got her certificate today to be a beauty operator, and we are all so glad she passed. Well, I enjoyed the day at Lincoln as a model, could look across the table and see the others doing just that Maxine was doing to my hair. . .
“Have you ever tried carrots and raisins with a little sugar and cream or a little mayonnaise? Run the carrots through chopper. We like them that way. . . . Love, Mother”
Laura Goff was known for squeezing more writing on a postcard than anyone. She certainly didn’t want to waste any of the space, adding kitchen tips at the end if she could work it in.
You have certainly done your family proud by being the historian, Joy! Bravo!
Thanks, GP! Maxine had three daughters, two of them still living, but they don’t even have email. I’d sure like to share this one (and next week’s) with them.
Print them out and mail them?
I think I have the address for one of them. Thanks, GP!
Oh my! I love this, Joy! What a treasured bit of family history! Beauty school model and a beauty herself. And the fact that she could squeeze a recipe onto a postcard, too? Love it. 🥰❤️🥰
Thank you, Vicki. I never thought of her as a beauty, but people remarked about her perfect skin. She always protected it from the sun, unlike her daughter Leora who ditched her bonnet as a child!
She’s a beauty, for sure. All that good stuff within shines through! ☀️❤️☀️
Oooh, bless you Vicki.
🥰❤️🥰
That’s a wonderful family story.
Thank you, Andrew. I hope I can get a hold of one of Maxine’s daughters. They don’t even have email.
That is a great story. These need to be told.
Thank you, Darlene.
Those little day to day details of daily living make the most interesting stories! 🙂
Thank you, Nancy. They certainly were delightful to find!
In this day of email and Facebook, do people even mail postcards? I see them in gift shops, but I wonder if those who buy them do so as momentos rather than as mailers.
I bet you’re right. I rarely send one anymore.
I LOVE this story of Laura as model for her granddaughter’s beautician training! I’ve made that carrot and raisin salad many times before, just as my mother and grandmother did.
Goosebumps, Liz! I hope I can get a hold of one of Maxine’s daughters to see if they know this story. And whether they still make the salad!
😃
Great piece of you family’s history, Joy. People working their way through the Great Depression amazes me.
Thank you, Tim. I agree!
Merrill had the proud posture of a U. S. Marine. I wanted to be a Marine because of 4 men. Merrill Goff, neighbor farmer, Ray (Bud) Lenocker, and Dad’s 2 friends, brothers, Charles and Tom Lee in Dexter. I also wanted to be an aviator. I didn’t think both were possible until seeing a winter Saturday movie on black and white television. “ The Flying Leathernecks.”
I didn’t know that! I think you have a book to work on, at least for your grandkids (and the rest of us)! Did Julie have storm damage?
Of course, but, I forgot to add———-wanted to be an aviator because of the 3 Wilson uncles we will have to meet later.
Lump in throat. . .
Thanks for sharing this wonderful story, Joy. ❤️
Thank you, Lauren. I only remember seeing Maxine a couple of times at Grandma Leora’s but feel like I know her from my mother’s stories. Maxine’s middle daughter was my age, but it no longer living.
Fascinating insights.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Granny! Next Thursday, Laura gets a Marcel wave!
[…] with Clarence Goff in Omaha, where Merrill and Maxine attended high school. Then Maxine decided to become a beautician. Her grandmother became her model for practice and for taking the practical tests in […]
often do carrots this way
I’d forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder, Carl!