Meet a neighbor: Michele!

You are sure to find Michele in the Community Garden!  Look for a friendly face who is happy to talk about veggies and anything else you might want to talk about.  We are lucky to have her in this community!

Michele came to Boulder with her parents when she was three years old and didn’t leave until she followed her husband to Syracuse, Texas and back to Boulder.  She left again to attend Duke University to get a graduate degree in geology.

She remembers fondly her childhood in small-town Boulder, a safe and very kid friendly place. Every Wednesday morning during the summers they showed children’s movies at the Boulder Theater and the Fox, which was at the time next to the Boulder Theater.  The admission was the top or and empty container from a Watts-Hardy Dairy product. 

Boulder hosted the annual Pow-Wow Days and rodeo. It started with Arapaho and Cheyenne dances at the band shell in Central Park, followed by a parade on Pearl Street to the pow-wow grounds and a rodeo at where today the YMCA and Whole Foods are located!  Michele played the clarinet in the marching band and even got to ride in one of the floats.

Michele and her husband Joe rented the home at 1705 Arapahoe in 1970 and bought it in 1976. They owned two bicycle stores, The High Wheeler and The Alternative Transportation Company. Joe was a bike racer and Michele officiated at races. The Morgul Bismarck loop and memorial race was named after their cat Morgul and their business partner’s dog, Bismarck.

Michele later divorced but has lived at 1705 Arapahoe except for a 7-year stint in Houston working in her field of petroleum geology. Currently she works for a consulting firm in Boulder.

She loves her home, the community feeling of the neighborhood, the ability to walk everywhere, and know her neighbors.

She became active in the Goss-Grove Neighborhood Association in the early 1980s, and served as co-chair with different people for a total of six years. She was also treasurer and is on her second round as GGNA’s secretary. Michele considers herself a neighborhood activist and has attended many, many meeting on our behalf. She got to know over the years several city managers, city staff, transportation department staff, representing neighborhood concerns.  She is currently also co-chairing with Jenny Devaud our neighborhood community garden at the 20^th street pocket park.

Michele likes to think “a good community is everybody’s responsibility, so we all need to pitch in.”