Pam Leland. Born 1944.

Summary of OH 1178V, recorded on December 14, 2003, for the Maria Rogers Oral History Program. The interviewer is Nicky Lee. This interview also is available in video format, filmed by Nicky Lee.

[A].

001 Born in Ames, Iowa, October 16, 1944. After college, choice between Colorado or Maine. Once here, knew she wanted to be here.

002 Moved to Boulder in 1969 and got a job as secretary at Neodata which used to be where Kaiser Permanente is now, Broadway and North. Crossroads was new in 1969. Seemed so far east then, now Crossroads feels like it’s central. Town felt smaller. Not so many people had moved in from other states. IBM and Storage Tek was here but not nearly the high-tech scene as there is today.

004 Lived at 5th and Valley View. Then lived on Valmont on a diary farm, across from a chicken farm. Rent was $75 a month.

005 Downtown shops at that time: mentions Kahn’s Women’s Clothing Store, Cotrell’s, Valentine Hardware. Woolworth’s (calls it Ben Franklin, but later corrects herself—was Woolworths. Ed: Ben Franklin was in the same shopping center as Colony Supermarket, see below): lunch counter faced Broadway. Potter’s Drug Store.

006 At Broadway Shoppes (Alpine and Broadway): Gene Lang Pharmacy, donut shop, Colony Supermarket. Ideal, which is still there, was there now.

007 Involvement with Boulder Arts Co-op. Saw ad in paper for interested crafts people to show up at 16th and Walnut. Shelly and Ernie Moody had the original idea. At that time, the hippie scene was really big in Boulder. The Moody’s had studied pottery at CU. About 20 at the meeting. People talked about their crafts and showed samples. Pam’s expertise was sewing. Husband at the time (Tom) was making purses and belts.

009 Dues determined by dividing the rent by the number of people who were participating. First place, was Broadway and Spruce. Long narrow room (about 100 square feet) for $100/month. Used to be a used bookshop called Duck Soup before they moved in there. 10 of them paid $10/month in rent. Affectionately referred to as a “bowling alley.” Sold waterbeds in the back of the store to supplement the utility costs.

011 Opened the store in 1971. Crafts included gold and silversmiths, pottery, macramé, leather work, stained glass, crochet. There was a craft movement nationally but no other retail crafts’ shop in Boulder at the time.

013 Did a little advertising, but not much. Word of mouth to generate foot traffic. Early days, assigned shifts. Each had to work 3 times a month. As more joined, people would work fewer hours. At some point a commission was added: in addition to paying rent, you paid a commission to the co-op for each piece that you sold so that they could afford a larger space.

014 Second location was 11th and Walnut, upstairs from the Walrus. Few years later, moved back to Pearl Street. With each move, acquired more space and members. Members from Boulder area.

015 Co-op got more professional over time. Got “slick.” First store was “haphazard” in terms of the decorating. Floor was bricks laid in a pattern. Walls were funky so they covered them up with burlap bags that Celestial Seasonings was throwing out. As became more successful, were able to remodel future spaces. Incorporated spotlighting and nice shelving and racks. Standards for membership got higher. Crafts became more professional. Moved from consensus for acceptance of a member to formal applications that included slides and description of work.

019 Evolution of Pam’s crafts. Western shirt craze around 1975. Created ornate Western shirts for men. How crafts people change their production as they get more successful—decisions about whether to do all work oneself or hire people to do parts of the work. Customers: started local, then as more tourists came to Boulder, outsiders bought too.

021 The hippie movement in Boulder. Everybody was wearing dull, muted colors or bright, tie-dyed stuff. Long, loose dresses. Long hair and beards. Birkenstocks or flip flops for feet. Granny glasses. The smell of patchouli oil filled the air. Prevalence of marijuana smoking.

023 Interaction between hippies and townspeople. To some of the townspeople the hippies represented joblessness, shoplifting or drugs. There was some panhandling, but probably not as much as there is now. Doesn’t remember big conflicts. Remembers hearing about bigger conflicts in Nederland and Ward.

025 Cowboy style was a fad that faded after two or three years. Became more creative in her sewing, doing pieced fabric work—Seminole patchwork—such as a jacket with front panels that were Seminole patchwork. Describes.

027 Co-op next moved to 1421 Pearl, where it currently is located. Left co-op in 1990. Was there 19 years. Left because of financial insecurity and not wanting to sew any more. Burned 200 clothing patterns in the wood burning stove. Gave away fabric and notions, except for a few things. Seldom sews now.

030 Bought fabrics in Denver when she was sewing. Denver Fabrics. Would make trips every month. There were 3 or 4 fabric shops in Boulder. Now it’s down to Elfrieda’s and Jo-Ann’s. There used to be Cloth World and So Fro. It’s a reflection in general that people aren’t sewing for themselves as much as they used to.

032 Sales at Boulder Arts & Crafts Co-op is now over $1 million per year. Run by employees now rather than members (although some members do still work there). It’s really matured and become professional. They now take consigned work from all over the country.

034 Interview being taped in Pam’s house, which is in the town of Rowena, in Left Hand Canyon. About Rowena. Was a mining community. It was a stage stop for going on to Ward. First house she lived in in Rowena was the old stage stop. Used to be bustling community of 3,000-4,000 people. Had a mercantile (general store), post office, school, house of ill repute, stage stop. Most of it burned. She lives at the east end of Rowena in a house that was built about 1904. Doesn’t know if it survived the fire or was built after the fire. Has lived in Rowena since 1971, for 32, going on 33 years.

036 Rowena hasn’t changed a lot, unlike the city of Boulder. Couple years ago, shoulder was widened to accommodate bicycle traffic. Traffic has increased but not a huge amount. Population is about 30.

038 About Emma “Ma” Spencer. She moved here when she was 65. Widowed. Lived by herself. A wise person. Had a huge garden that was irrigated by the creek. Was a vegetarian. Baked bread every week. Always had a container of popcorn on her table. She was very religious and would play hymns on the piano. She made braided rugs of scrap fabrics. And she also wove rugs on a loom. Observed the Sabbath on Saturday.

People would hitchhike up and down the canyon. Word got out that if you did chores for Ma, she’d let you stay in one of her out buildings for a while. She was so trusting.

044 Dorothy and George Sibley. Lived in middle of Rowena. He had been New York State Republican Chair. He was an attorney. They were sophisticated but fit in to the community. In the early 70s, he would commute every day to Denver. Dorothy worked in Denver too. George died., then she died in 1983. As a community, they pulled together during her illness so that she could stay at home. There were 7 of them. Hospice gave them training. Each person signed up to take care of Dorothy for one day of the week. She had liver cancer. They took care of her for about 3 months.

048 Adopt-A-Road. Rowena has a 3-mile section. Community gets together once a year to clean up the road. Have been doing it for 9 years. Started by Georgia and Vince Muro, who are also long-time residents.

051 Describes the mix of residents in Rowena. Includes George Garcia, the Boulder Valley School District superintendent and his wife.

052 Hitchhiking up Left Hand Canyon. Did it for 7 years, 1971 - 1978. Always felt safe going down because it would be other mountain neighbors who would give you a ride. Met a lot of people, made a lot of friends through hitchhiking. Stopped hitchhiking when she bought a car. Hitchhiking not common anymore.

054 About Celestial Seasonings. A brand new company at that time. Used to see people walking in the mountains with burlap bags over their shoulders picking herbs, rosehips, and clover blossoms for Celestial Seasonings. Now they import herbs from all over the world.

055 Ernie Moody went on to open another craft shop, Hands Across the Water, a Japanese import shop. He was instrumental in opening Old Chicago with Frank Day. He now is a multi-millionaire who designs video games and lives in Las Vegas.

056 Shelly Moody managed Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes, then she opened a shop called As You Wish—a paint-your-own-pottery shop. Sold it two years ago. Most people involved in crafts during the 1970s moved on to other things.

059 Pam describes what she did after stopping her crafts work including work at Boulder County Parks and Open Space. Now does administrative support work at JILA, the physics institute at CU that is jointly run by CU and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). Very interesting, exciting work.

061 End of interview.

335 – End of Interview