January 7, 2020 – Shadows, Shaving Soap, and Goldie: Lyn’s Warmest Ranch Memories from Childhood

In this gentle episode from January 7, 2020, Lyn Goffaux looks back on some of her warmest childhood memories from a remote mountain ranch. She begins with her father’s small rituals: the straight razor, the shaving soap brushed into a thick lather, and the sudden playful leap from the bathroom to dab foam on her face while she watched and giggled by the door. In winter, the walk to the corral became a “shadow game” on the snow, the two of them jumping on each other’s shadows and laughing as everyday chores turned into a shared adventure. Lyn also remembers how seriously she took the riding rules her father taught her, and how that seriousness once cost her a moment of joy. Mounting on a slope, she turned her horse so she stood on the uphill side for safety, only to have a companion spin the horse and tease her for “cheating.” Focused on doing things right, she grew angry instead of laughing with him, and he rode away hurt. Years later, she still wishes she had recognized the difference between careless risk and harmless fun, and she speaks honestly about how easy it is to wound someone when you cling too tightly to rules. The story then widens to the people who briefly shared their home. Lyn tells of ranger Mashlack, his wife, and their adopted daughter Leticia, a little girl with very thick dark hair and a tender scalp that made daily braiding an ordeal of tears. Every morning, Lyn’s mother Ellie patiently combed and braided Leticia’s hair while Lyn got ready for school and the younger girls, Pokey and Leticia, played with a box of smooth hardwood blocks Paul had made. Almost every day, Pokey would tap Leticia on the head with a block, and Lyn still wonders what pressures that isolated life placed on the adults, even as she remembers loving the wild country around them. From there, Lyn turns to Ellie’s thrift and creativity. Determined not to waste extra milk, Ellie sent away for government pamphlets on cheese making and followed their instructions step by step. Lyn recalls Paul digging deep and pouring a solid base for a new fireplace exactly as another booklet described, so frost could not shift it the way it did a neighbor’s less carefully built hearth. She then sketches how Ellie warmed milk, cut curds, pressed them in coffee cans under weighted boards, and aged the rounds in a cool cupboard until they turned into firm, flavorful cheeses. Ellie’s artistry went far beyond food. She painted the log house a peach color whenever it began to look tired, sculpted, painted pictures, made dolls, and constantly created beauty out of everyday materials. Yet she was never fully at ease on horseback, preferring slow, cautious rides on the gentlest mounts while Lyn spent every free moment outside with the animals. That contrast between a studio-centered mother and a horse-centered daughter runs quietly underneath the whole episode. At the heart of the story is Goldie, the mare Lyn calls her “babysitter horse.” After a wreck on a young horse left Lyn’s knee badly damaged and her leg in a cast through high school finals, she was determined to ride again even though simply bending the joint was painful. Goldie, narrow and sure-footed, carried her gently, refusing to go faster than a brisk walk at first and keeping that injured leg from knocking against anything. Later, when a group of horses bunched up in a lane and Lyn feared her weak leg would be crushed, Goldie swung away from the crowd on her own, shielding her without any cue. Lyn admits she did not fully appreciate Goldie at the time because the mare did not seek affection or fuss, but now she sees how faithfully Goldie adjusted to each rider and, especially, how carefully she guarded Lyn in her most vulnerable season.