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When Art Work And Family Blend Celebrating The Talents of Marguerite Senecal

photo by provided Wishing Well Beauty Shop on opening day, September 1st, 1965.

photo by provided Marguerite and Larry Senecal happily call Addison County their home!

photo by provided Beautiful tapestry pillows were a part of several winters for Marguerite.

photo by provided The top of a beautiful trunk that showcases one of Marguerite's many projects.

Tuesday January 10, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

Marguerite Charlebois Senecal was born at home on the farm like all of her six siblings in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Marguerite is a great lover of finding out how things worked and found herself driving a tractor with a wagon and hay loader behind it at the age of six. Tagging along behind dad most everywhere he went her childhood was replete with hammers, saws, tools and learning the down and practical side of farming. It would be easy to assume that the following article honors Marguerite Charlebois Senecal for her years of farming but instead focuses on her fifty-five years of cutting hair, sewing clothing and one of a kind masterpieces that continue to demonstrate her unique mix of the soul and talents of an artist and the practical skill set of one who came of age in a generation when if it broke, you fixed it.
    Part of Marguerite’s skills came from her mother who always made all the clothing for her and her siblings, put homemade meals on the table every day, canned everything including meat and had a stockpile of foods ready in reserve for hard times.  Marguerite’s memories of working with hair began with her hair and she shared with a chuckle, “I had this cowlick right up here and it really bothered me. I have vivid memories of mom giving me fifteen cents to go to the beauty shop after elementary school got out to go and get my hair cut. Truth be told, those ladies did not want to cut my bangs and they would wet my hair, hold them down and snip off the ends. They looked atrocious. After much complaining, my mother informed me that if I could do it better to do it myself.” Marguerite locked herself in the bathroom, took a pair of kitchen shears and layered her hair emerging about thirty minutes later with a great cut. Marguerite’s mom looked up and said, ‘Well I’ll be damned!” And thus began a process where Marguerite’s friends wanted her to cut their hair and then their mothers had her over for supper and she ended up cutting their hair. By the age of fourteen Marguerite had a natural knack and a thriving business.
    After graduating from VUHS in 1961, Marguerite attended Eli School of Cosmetology in Burlington and shared an apartment with childhood friend Joyce Danyow. “You know to this day it is ironic,” shared Senecal, “how people are never satisfied with the hair they have. I watched her straighten the most glorious curly hair and all I could think of was why, why.” After working at salons in Middlebury with her white uniform, white shoes and stockings, Marguerite opened her own business in 1964and married Larry Senecal in 1963. The couple met at a really fun place on Lake Hortonia that specialized in square and round dancing. “I do remember thinking he was one fantastic dancer,” grinned Marguerite. The couple are celebrating their fifty-fourth year of marriage. Whether it was square, round, or western dancing the couple went out dancing every week. “The question was never what to do on a Friday or Saturday night,” giggled Senecal. “It was which dance are we going to.”
    Over the seasons of dance, Marguerite found out at a young age that she also had skill with sewing and with nimble fingers have made countless costumes. “My mom had not made me a dress and being fourteen I didn’t want to wait. While she was gone one afternoon I made myself a pattern and a new dress. When she returned, I was told, don’t look to me to make you any more clothing, make it yourself since you obviously know how.” When asked how she got all her practice in, Senecal looked a little bit sheepish and shared that she used to make doll clothes using sewing needles while she was assigned to watch the cows eat their hay and not get out of the fence. “If my father had known, oh my goodness,” shared Senecal.
    While Addison County has always been her home, Marguerite and Larry have lived in Cornwall thirty-eight years of their fifty-four years of marriage. Whether it is Betty Thurber who has been with her all the way and a customer for forty-three years or people in Vergennes, Bristol and others whose homes she still frequents to provide haircuts, Marguerite echoes the sentiment of many hairdressers that they are family. “I can’t tell you how many people are in my hair family,” explained Senecal, “but they are all a part of my life and have been for so long. I love getting to see my family every other week.”  While inflation and the times have moved prices on all goods and services up into the stratosphere, Senecal’s prices seem to be stationary. Starting out forty-five years ago with a $2.00 haircut, Senecal’s clients today pay around
$10.00. While some tip more, Senecal has always believed the object is to cut their hair not fleece their pockets.
    Originally dreaming of art school as a child, Senecal’s life has accomplished that is so many ways without setting foot in an art college. “When I was little we had no paints,” shared Senecal. “I would use some of my mother’s shelving paper and I used water and food coloring for my paint. Many a night I would get lost in my work and my mom would patiently wait until I stopped and then made sure I got to bed.” In a life that still includes juggling more jobs than most people decades younger, Senecal is always about projects. It could be sewing unique and stunning christening outfits, making costumes for her granddaughter and many of the kids in Rice High School’s famed stunt night, creating a painting, upholstery work, knitting, making sweaters or transforming old things into works of art.
    “You know there are not enough hours in the day,” shared Senecal. “That was even true when I was first starting out. I would start one client’s hair, change a diaper, answer the phone, put another client under the dryer, throw some washing in, get supper started and keep this up and repeat. I have albums full of the different projects and pieces that I have made for family, friends and special gatherings. My children each have something from me especially for them and so do my grandchildren.”  While her business is headed toward 60 years of cutting hair, Senecal has no plans to slow down or stop doing what she loves to do. Whether it is working with young people, cutting hair for generations of families or making that next special project, two things are for certain; it will be done with love and a bit of flair.
    The Valley Voice salutes the talents, persistence and love of people that makes Marguerite Charlebois Senecal tick and that sets the Champlain Valley apart as a unique place to call home.  “I love what I do,” concluded Marguerite as a message came over her phone from her beloved granddaughter Savana. “Oops, looks like another project,” grinned Marguerite. And with that she was off, with a day’s work done and still more places to go before her feet stopped for the day.

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