Welcome to Palisade, Colorado: 2,692 friendly people and 1 grouch. What’s the story behind Palisade’s grouch contest, and who would want to be one? I talk with the current town grouch and a town grouch hopeful to find out.
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Transcript:
Welcome to the Postcards From Palisade Podcast. I’m Lisa McNamara. Join me as I chat with our community members to hear about how they are making Palisade a great place to live and visit.
You may have seen the sign in the plaza downtown: welcome to Palisade, 2,692 friendly people and 1 grouch. Or the older sign at the brewery, from back when Palisade had 1,700 friendly people, but we still had that 1 grouch. I had to know, what’s the deal with this town grouch?
Well, I’ve had a great time digging into this unique piece of Palisade’s lore. I’ve had such a great time that the episode started getting very, very long, so I decided to split it up into two episodes.
Today is Town Grouch Part 1: Grouches of Palisade Present (and maybe, future?).
The next episode will be Town Grouch Part 2: Grouches of Palisade Past. I’ve spoken with a few former town grouches and have dug into the history of this contest, and can’t wait to share that with you all too.
But let’s start with our current town grouch. As of 2025, the Lions Club of Palisade, championed by Rick Fox, is continuing the town grouch tradition that was started by the Palisade Chamber of Commerce back in 1985. The Lions Club is also commissioning a beautiful new sign to post downtown that will include the names of all town grouches, along with plenty of space for future grouches.
The Lions Club is working out the details of the 2026 grouch contest, so be sure to follow them for more updates on how this tradition will continue going forward. They’re on Facebook at Palisade CO Lions Club.
Side note: do you know about the Palisade Lions Club? That’s another interesting story in its own right. The Palisade branch of this service organization has been active for 95 years, since July 1930. Their stated intent is to “make Palisade a better place to live, work and play by virtue of its Lion’s Club.” Their motto is: “We Serve.” Their mission today is to empower volunteers to serve our community, meet humanitarian needs, and encourage peace.
Every park, most buildings, and many local organizations have benefited from the Lions’ generosity. They have put in park benches, picnic shelters, planters, made improvements to the Veterans Memorial Center, helped schools purchase equipment and improve their athletic fields, helped fund peach pest control efforts, funded healthcare efforts, and so, so much more.
Thanks to Rick Fox for sharing the history of this awesome organization with me. If you want to join the Lions Club and help make Palisade a better place to live, work, and play, please reach out to Rick at palisadelions(at)gmail.com. Another way to support them is to participate in their fundraising events, like the annual pancake breakfast.
While we eagerly wait to hear how 2026’s grouch program will run, I managed to track down the current town grouch, Jamie Somerville, in all his grouchiness and convince him to stop by my office talk to me about his grouchy reign. When he’s not being the town grouch, Jamie is a member of the town’s board of trustees, a teacher at Mt. Garfield Middle School, and a born and raised Palisadian. Jamie shared with me what it means to him to be the 2025 Palisade town grouch.
Jamie: It’s something as a kid, you grew up, and you always were excited about it. And, you know, one of the early ones I remember was Tom Underwood, and he worked at the gas station, and a lot of us would always go in there and buy candy and sodas, and the grouch would be the person in there, and that was pretty neat. And, I don’t know, it’s a. It’s a pretty cool honor. It’s something that is, you know, being a lifelong Palisadian that I’ve always thought highly of, and I’m, so first and foremost, I think it’s really important. Rick Fox is the person who’s most responsible for bringing it back. He took it as a passion project and did all the work to do all the digging and did all this stuff. And, you know, he deserves all the credit for getting it alive, and I’m so grateful that he did. And. And it’s a lot of fun. And my role in the whole thing is really just to shine light on it, and I guess I draw more attention.
But I want it to be something that is celebrated in Palisade and that people know about and, you know, heckle me. You should. That’s what it’s all about. I think at Peach Fest, I walked around and did the same grimace face for everybody. And I even found one of the stuffed animal vendors at Peach Fest. They had the cutest little sad turtle. And so I put him on my shoulder, and he was. What was it I was telling people? I was like, I’m getting too happy, so I need this turtle to keep me. Keep me upset.
Lisa: Bring it back down.
Jamie: Yeah.
Lisa: Well, we should start with. What’s your name?
Jamie: All right. I’m Jamie Somerville.
Lisa: Awesome. Thanks, Jamie. I did reach out to Rick, too. But he said I should talk to you.
Jamie: I’ve never heard of Rick. You know, I think Rick’s just. I don’t think he wants it to be about him.
Lisa: Okay.
Jamie: And you know, I think that he’s very proud of what it’s gonna be and he’s got, he’s excited about it coming back and you know, in later years you heard more people talking about it. And I remember I was so excited when Mary Lincoln got it because it’s been men so many times, you know, and it’s.
Jamie: I think it means a lot. I think it is an established Palisade person award. It is something that, you know, you’re just recognized for existing, basically, and that’s great. It’s an interesting thing because it started as a fundraiser for the Chamber. And so, you know, as a kid I never really understood how it got situated. And you see the little donation cups and I don’t know if that’s the future of it or if it’s something that just gets voted on plainly from in the future. I have no idea what Rick’s plan is for that, but, you know, I’m excited to be a part of making it visible again.
Lisa: So tell me, what is town grouch?
Jamie: So that’s it. I think you just make people laugh. You know, it’s a funny thing. It’s an ironic thing. Anybody that knows me knows I’m not grouchy. And I think the irony in choosing people that aren’t grouchy makes it funny. And I’m probably becoming a little more curmudgeonly as I get older and, and I can play along with that. I don’t know where the term came. I know it came from the sign. And because that sign, I used to ride my bike by it all the time and it said 1,700 people and one, or 799 people in one grouch or something.
Lisa: It was 1,700.
Jamie: And you know, and I love that sign and I’d love to see that sign go back and really it become our theme, because it is ours. We’re not just making it up out of nowhere. Rick recognized it. It used to be. And it was no more. And you know, I think you can lose sight of those things if you quit paying attention to them.
Lisa: Yeah.
Jamie: And they’re fun to keep going. And I think the coolest thing is, is that it just recognizes people that have been here. You know, I love going. The sign is going to get moved so people can actually see it. A tree decided to grow in its way. But it’s one of those things that it’s cool to go and see the list of names that you’re up there with. I mean, anytime I can be on a list with Bill Floryancic, I’m gonna be excited about that.
Lisa: Nice. Yeah. So it’s not about being grouchy. But there are some responsibilities that you have to fulfill throughout the year, right?
Jamie: Yeah. And I think we’re working out what that actually means. So I just go to everything I can. I think the future of it would be something that like, eventually events would request the grouch. That’s what I’ve. I’ve stood back and if anybody would have ever requested that I be at their thing, I would do it. You know, we definitely did Peach Fest. So I walked around Peach Fest. I know that there’s plans to make it announced at bluegrass. I kind of did a dual role at the parade where. The Christmas one especially. You know, and I was really offended because everybody said I should dress up like the Grinch, which I said was a Temu version. The Temu version of the Grouch. It’s like, you know, that’s my off. I don’t.
Lisa: Grinch is not the Grouch.
Jamie: I don’t mess with the Grinch. You know, he’s much cheerier than I am. So just giving it that identity, being present, and people just catch it. And especially out at Peach Fest, they’re like, wanted to take pictures and there’s 20 pictures of me making grumpy faces out there now, which is great.
Lisa: Going forward, it’s still being developed and how exactly the Lions Club is going to run the contest or program or whatever you want to call it. But is a component of it always going to continue to be fundraising? Is that something that’s always a part of it?
Jamie: I don’t know if that’s the future of it. That really is going to come down to what they want to do. I think that they are the custodians of it now, and I certainly hope that that’s not a block that it runs into, that it has to be one thing or the other, because I think you have to keep the main thing, the main thing about it, and it’s just recognizing the irony and the joy and the fun of Palisade and making sure that that’s the essence of it, because you certainly don’t want it to become something where the highest bidder gets it either.
Lisa: Right.
Jamie: And then you start running into conflicts about it. It should be just a yokel, you know, just a Palisade person. And I think that’s why Rick really pushed for me to help bring it back, because I’m obviously that guy. So, yeah, I think that’s got to be the vision of it, however it gets decided.
Lisa: Interesting. One of the things that I found from past stories about it in past Tribunes was, they were pretty shameless about it being going to the highest bidder. Back in the day, back when it started. There’s some quotes about, this is one election you can. I don’t. This is one election where you can bribe the officials or something like that. And I thought that was pretty funny, but I can see how maybe back in the day, 40 years ago, that was funny.
Jamie: Things probably were funnier back then.
Lisa: Yeah. Maybe less funny now these days. You grew up here. Obviously, you were born here, raised here. You said you biked by the sign, saw the town grouch. Did you ever feel like you were one day going to be the town grouch?
Jamie: Probably, yeah. I was like, that’s probably something I’ll do. Right? I mean, I have just. I’ve had a love affair with this town forever. I was not one of those people that walked around and said bad things about Palisade. I loved it. I mean, I went away for college. I lived in Kansas, and I lived in Tennessee, and I drove people crazy talking about this place. I annoyed them to death. And they were like, it’s just a place, man. And I was like, oh, you should see it. It’s great. It’s wonderful. It’s awesome. And I purposefully went away to college because I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life here. And it was all about that. It was all, you know, I took everybody with me and never forgot about anybody and got back here as soon as I could. And this is it. It’s perfect. And so I think I just. I totally embrace all of that tradition, and I love it. And, yeah, I was really excited when it happened. I’m not gonna sit here and be like, you know, I didn’t really. Yeah, I wanted to be a grouch! Heck yeah, it’s like the coolest thing ever. So it worked out pretty well.
Lisa: I love it. Does your family and friend. Do your family and friends agree that. That you are a grouch qualified material?
Jamie: Yeah, absolutely. Especially my kids. You know, they didn’t even flinch at it. They were like, oh, what’d you do now? Who’d you upset? That fits. My kids, especially are probably the ones that don’t see the irony in it, so.
Lisa: That’s fair. So what does it mean to you to be carrying on this tradition?
Jamie: Just that it’s a great Palisade tradition that needs to be brought back up, and I am going to shamelessly just put light on it as much as I can. And hopefully somebody. Somebody else sees it out there and says, yeah, I could totally do that. And then when it’s decided, I think, I know that Rick said that there was going to be an announcement about it at bluegrass coming up. And so I’m going to go up on the stage and embarrass myself and just, you know, wave my arms around and growl at people. And hopefully there’s some people out there that say, I want to carry that on and be visible. It should be more than just riding in a parade. You know, you should be willing to talk about it and be willing to do it. And in the meantime, talk about what Palisade means to you and why you care about it. And I think that’s probably the important thing is it’s an opener to a conversation about who we are.
Lisa: You mean bluegrass in June, right?
Jamie: Yes.
Lisa: Bluegrass and roots. Okay.
Jamie: Yes. I don’t know when my term started on the grouch thing. You know, that’s kind of what I’ve had in mind of when we will go forward with it. There’s. I don’t know if there’s any rules right now.
Lisa: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair. That’s totally fair. I mean, I think it’s great it’s coming back. I think overall, I mean, nobody said, oh no, the grouch program is coming back. Like, everybody was really excited. Like, yay, it’s back.
Jamie: And people got to learn about it.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people have moved here since 2022 when the last one happened.
Jamie: Yeah. And I think there was a gap of time where it didn’t really get handed out. I’m sure Covid played a role in that. And if we weren’t going out and interacting with people, then. Yeah.
Lisa: So are you gonna make a bid for grouch again next year?
Jamie: So that’s one of those things that I think has got to be decided about the culture of it. You know, I didn’t ask for it this time. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to nominate yourself or if it’s something that you should be nominated for or how that goes. So, you know, I’m pretty fortunate that I got to do it once. I’m not gonna, like, seek it out. I’m not gonna go and, you know, run for it. But if I were nominated again, I would do it again, and I would whatever, and that’d be great, and I’d be grateful again. But I think it’s probably more fun if you’re nominated by other people. So I think I’ve nominated my wife three times.
Lisa: What did she have to say about that?
Jamie: She didn’t know. She’s gonna find out when she hears this podcast.
Lisa: That’s pretty funny.
Jamie: I was always hoping she’d win, and then I had some explaining to do.
Lisa: Well, other than your wife, who do you think should run? Or who do you. Who would you nominate next year, other than your wife?
Jamie: Can I formally make a nomination right now?
Lisa: I think you can. Yeah. I feel like you should.
Jamie: I’m want to formally nominate Rick Fox. You know, I think Rick would love it. I think he would be great. I think that he’s got a vision in his mind and, you know, bringing it back. He would have not looked great making himself the grouch, so and he knows that.
Lisa: Good point.
Jamie: So I am throwing Rick’s name out there. I know Lisa Kral has been adamant. She’s shameless about it. She wants it. She might fight for it. We could just. We could do something with those two. We could do debates and ask them questions and they just get angry and upset. You know what, like, what irritates you the most? And then we could all just be in the Palisade Auditorium and take it in. There could be moderator questions and we could just get down to it.
Lisa: I love it.
Jamie: And maybe we all vote there after. Who. Who’s the grouchiest?
Lisa: That’s an awesome idea.
Jamie: Yeah.
Lisa: I really like that.
Jamie: Yeah. I just came up with it.
Lisa: Yeah. Like kind of in. Instead of like, when there’s the board of trustees candidate forum, it would be the.
Jamie: The Lions get to be up there. I think citizens should get to ask questions.
Lisa: I think this sounds like a great idea. Yeah, I love it. All right. We need Rick to buy into that, too. Hm. I’d help with that. Anyway, good idea. what else about the program or anything else you want to share or say?
Jamie: I think it’s just the biggest part of pushing on the tradition. And for me, for me, the whole thing is about gratitude. I think that we have so many good things going on in Palisade. The irony of being grouchy is hilarious because how can you be grouchy about living here? We have so much more to be thankful for than we have to be upset about. It’s just a wonderful place. It’s the best place in the world. And I think that’s got to be the attitude of it, is I would say whoever represents that is the best person to do it.
Lisa: Awesome.
Jamie: And I have no fault in saying that I’m probably the most grateful person in town, so that worked out pretty well.
Lisa: That’s fair. I love it.
Jamie: You should get Lisa’s opinion, just as a big fan.
So I did.
Lisa Moose Kral: I get nervous when you interview me.
Lisa: Oh, really? I mean,
Lisa Moose Kral: I don’t want to sound silly.
Lisa: I’d get nervous if it was me the other way, I’d be nervous. Well, do you want to start by introducing yourself?
Lisa Moose Kral: Sure. My name is Lisa Moose Kral, and I’m a Palisade town grouch hopeful, I guess.
This is my second time chatting with Lisa (Moose) for the podcast. She was featured in one of the first episodes, in May of 2023. Lisa is a photographer who regular shoots photos for Palisade events. She took the photos for La Plaza’s Faces of the Harvest exhibit last year. She’s a member of Palisade Art Vision (PAV), the Palisade Historical Society, and the Lions Club. I asked Lisa why she wanted to be the town grouch.
Lisa: OK so tell me why you want to be Palisade’s town grouch.
Lisa Moose Kral: Okay, so when we moved here, John Sabal was the town grouch, and he became one of my first friends. And he continued to be the town grouch for three years. And he kept the town grouch hat at the Palisade Cafe. And he let me put it on one year, and I was like, ooh, I like this. And really, I am a sucker for accessories. So I had tried on the hat, and I think once you put on that town grouch hat, it, like, invades your body.
Lisa: Ooh.
Lisa Moose Kral: And I was like, ooh. And then Covid happened, so they didn’t have a town grouch, and they were resurging it in 2021, and I was like, maybe this is my year. And so I put together a flier and I made a whole campaign saying, Lisa Moose Kral, the first Moose town grouchette. Because there have been grouchettes, as, you know, Mary Lincoln and a few ladies before that. But I wanted to be the first Moose grouchette. So I made a campaign, and I posted it on social media, and everyone’s like, you’re not grouchy enough. And at that time, I was one of the only photographers for the Chamber. And they’re like, well, you photograph the grouch, and like we don’t really want selfies. Can you maybe hold off on that? And I was like, fair enough. Okay, I’ll hold off on it. But since 2021, I had a campaign that said, ruining other people’s photos for many years. And that came from the, there was a Palisade Plunge party, downtown Palisade, and the GJ Sentinel made an article about it, and every photo in their article, there I was standing in the middle of their photographer’s photos.
Lisa: That’s making my eye twitch!
Lisa Moose Kral: So I thought that was a great slogan. So I had all the things, but I was told I wasn’t grouchy enough and the selfies were not really acceptable.
Lisa: Aw.
Lisa Moose Kral: However, I do have a husband that can verify that I am actually very grouchy, especially from the hours about 6am to 8am and he’s willing to provide photo evidence if that’s required for future campaigns. He definitely can vouch for my grouchiness. But I am a photographer, and my job is to make people smile. But then I was thinking, this year, when you see the town grouch walking around, you smile, you know, like. So I don’t think you need to be grouchy to be the town grouch. So whether it be this year or years to come, it is one of my life goals to be the Palisade town grouchette.
Lisa: I’m loving that so much. So what did you. Okay, so you have photographed the previous grouches for quite some time.
Lisa Moose Kral: Yes. And the year that I wanted to run, it was Rondo, which, you know, if, you know Rondo, I can’t compete with that. But he didn’t even win. It was Brad Brophy, who is actually adorable. And, you know, I guess he can be grouchy, but he’s. He’s a very sweet man, so I was glad that he won that year.
Lisa: Is that the new sign you have a picture of?
Lisa Moose Kral: Yeah, I have the new sign.
Lisa: Oh sweet.
Lisa Moose Kral: So Brad Brophy and then Mary Lincoln and then Jamie Somerville ran unopposed last year. Not fair, Jamie Somerville.
Lisa: I think he was appointed.
Lisa Moose Kral: But, you know, I have support from the Palisade Lions Club. If I choose to be. If I choose to try to be the grouch. But I like to know who my competition is, because then I saw, like, Rondo, and I’m like, I can’t compete with that. Sorry, Rondo.
Lisa: Well, I actually wanted to talk to you because Jamie mentioned you specifically, because I talked to him. And he was like, I know Lisa really wants to be the grouch. I know she wants it bad. You should talk to her.
Lisa Moose Kral: I really do. I mean, since we moved to Palisade, I just want to partake in all the big and small things that make our town so fun and unique. And, you know, I’ve joined the Palisade Historical Society. I’m a Palisade Lions now. You know, I’m a town photographer. I’m one of the photographers for the Chamber. I just. I like doing all the things I, you know, I want. I made this my home 10 years ago. And so town grouch is on my list of life goals. So maybe this is my year. I don’t know.
Lisa: Yeah, I’m feeling it.
Lisa Moose Kral: As I’m sitting here in a rainbow sweater with purple hair and a butterfly necklace.
Lisa: You do look very cheerful today! Well, what have you learned from previous. From photographing the previous town grouches? Any wisdom?
Lisa Moose Kral: I mean, they really just, I hate to spoil it, but they really provide joy to the town when you see that hat walking around. And I do like accessories too, so. And I might demand a purple town grouchette hat. But I just think it’s just, like, a little nicety that walks around Palisade at the festivals and the parades and, you know, why not. Why not add that to my list of little things that I’ve accomplished? Small goals. But I think it’s important that I add that to my list. I started talking to the Lions Club about, you know, the potential or the past interest I had, and they’re like, yes, town grouch Lisa. And I’m like okay, that could be my thing again. I just. My bubble kind of got burst when everyone’s like, you’re not grouchy enough. And I’m like, oh, I surely am. You just don’t. I just don’t leave the house when I’m grouchy.
Lisa: But that’s not the main point of being of the town grouch.
Lisa Moose Kral: I think it’s been five years. Times have changed a little bit. There’s other photographers here in Palisade. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind taking my photo, so, you know, don’t have to take selfies. Although I think a town grouch selfie would be quite apropos.
Lisa: It would be, because you’d be like, look at me. Nobody even wants to take my picture. I have to take my own.
Lisa Moose Kral: It’s just sad taking my own picture. But, yeah, I mean, it could be my year, people. It could be my year.
Lisa: I feel it. I don’t know if I’ve heard from anybody else who wants to be the grouch so much. So.
Lisa Moose Kral: I mean, running unopposed would feel okay for me because I’m not very competitive. So, I would gladly step in and relieve Jamie Somerville. But I kind of would want a new hat that was purple.
Lisa: Is that the same? Is that the hat that’s been used in the recent past?
Lisa Moose Kral: No, it’s a new hat.
Lisa: Okay.
Lisa Moose Kral: I’ve heard that John Sabal’s hat is missing, and he can’t defend himself right now, but I think he might be interested in talking with you when he gets back.
Lisa: Definitely.
Lisa Moose Kral: So they got a new hat for Jamie this year.
Lisa: That’s really funny, because I don’t think Mary had a hat.
Lisa Moose Kral: No, I don’t remember Mary ever putting on the hat. But I think a hat is kind of something you want, just personal.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah, maybe. Just the concept of a hat gets passed on from year to year. I mean, a hat is personal.
Lisa Moose Kral: It is. And I think maybe the grouch should decide what their hat should be. Every grouch is a little bit different.
Lisa: I’m picturing you with one of those, like, 90s, like those purple 90s hats that everybody had that was just really like.
Lisa Moose Kral: Like a Cyndi Lauper kind of?
Lisa: Do you remember the one that had the big thing, maybe, the big things that came out? I feel like everybody had them. In the late 90s.
Lisa Moose Kral: I’ll look into it. Because I won’t, you know, if I’m in charge of picking my own, which I don’t know if I would be, but I would make it, you know, something special.
Lisa: You absolutely would.
Lisa Moose Kral: I bet.
Lisa: I seriously think if I Google late 90s purple hat, I feel like it’s gonna come up. It did not. This is just in my mind. I was like, it’s gonna be the first one. Okay. More research.
Lisa Moose Kral: I’ll look into it.
Lisa: All right. I’ll find it. And I’ll text it to you.
Lisa Moose Kral: But yes, I mean, if this is gonna be my year, I would gladly accept, and I promise to be grouchy and make you smile at the same time, because that’s my job as a photographer.
There you have it. Moose for 2026 grouchette?
So back to Jamie. Having a born and raised Palisadian in my office, on the mic, I realized I had a great opportunity to learn more about what it was like to be a kid in Palisade about the same time that I was growing up in the northwoods of New York state.
Lisa: What was it like growing up here?
Jamie: A lot different then. It was quiet. And I know a lot of people love that, but it was really quiet. And you would ride your bike. Like I said, you’d ride your bike. I lived out on 36 and 3/10 Road. And a day with your friends was riding your bike to town. I remember we used to save 100 pennies. The game was to save 100 pennies. And then you could go buy a candy bar. And I’m sure that. I’m sure that Tom Underwood loved dealing with, gathering all of our pennies.
Lisa: I’m sure he did.
Jamie: But you could go and we’d buy, you know, I was really into baseball cards. So it was save your coins until you could afford it. And then it was just an excuse to ride your bike. And a lot of us would meet up at the pool. The pool hasn’t changed at all. And it was funny when my kids came home talking about playing gutterball. Because I’m like, we played gutterball. And when we were talking about pool modifications, it was like, don’t change the gutters. The gutters are the essence of the pool.
Lisa: Got to have gutterball.
Jamie: So that was neat. And it’s still weird going into the Dinomart because the door or the front used to be on the other side. And that, it still throws me off. That was called the 5B. And I don’t know, that was just fun. That was what you did. You went and bought, back when everything cost $0.50. You would spend your dollar on a Snickers and a Coke or something like that. And you rode your bike and we did a lot of things that we shouldn’t admit to now, like swimming in canals and rivers and that was. But we just. The whole area was ours. And you didn’t live near anybody really. So you had to go find people. And then we’d all meet up somewhere. It was different too, when Peach Fest used to be in the park right here. Because it was easy for us to break away from there. It wasn’t like you had to commit down to Riverbend. It was everybody meet there. And then we’d go to the rope swing under the bridge and then we’d go from there and. Have you ever seen the rope swing under the bridge?
Lisa: No, I haven’t. No. I’ve never even heard of this.
Jamie: Right under the main bridge, there’s a rope swing usually that comes off there and there’s that eddy right under the beams. So that was a lot of that. And that’s pretty much it. And we kept ourselves busy doing that. I don’t know how much kids still do that, because kids just don’t. Like, my kids don’t go wander and they don’t have to wander like they’re in town now, so maybe there’s less incentive when you’re actually just here.
Lisa: Maybe. Yeah. No, I grew up in the middle of nowhere and absolutely wandered and like lived in the woods. It was great. It was a lot of fun.
Jamie: It was like, I mean, if you were out after 10, nothing. We didn’t have the scene of, the social scene at all. And I think as kids we were afraid to go by the Livery saloon just because we didn’t know what that meant. And we were like, “that’s a bar!” So I mean, half of us grew up working at what is now the brew pub because that was United Fruit Growers. So at one point, I’ve worked several jobs there that weren’t, you know, I worked there as a bartender and I worked there as a packer. So. And we did that. That was another cool thing, was a lot of us, so when you had United Fruit Growers, you had a lot of small farmers that contributed to that. So you had a lot more employers. A bunch of people had small orchards and they would all hire kids. And so, and yeah, you’d be 12 and you’d go do it. And that was something fun that we did with our friends, which most of the time, I don’t think that would pass now because we were really inefficient. I think of the number of peach crates that we boxed compared to what Clark’s does in a day. And I mean, I remember we thought eight was a lot and Clark’s does hundreds.
Lisa: Wow.
Jamie: You know. And they’re fast and they’re doing it. So it was a nice. We were probably the last generation of kids that really got into it.
Lisa: Interesting. I bet there was a lot of loss too, in terms of like eating them and throwing them at each other and things like that.
Jamie: I didn’t even eat them when I picked them so much and did all that. I liked pears.
Lisa: Okay. Oh, the pears here are so good.
Jamie: You know, like, I worked at Fuller’s a lot, and I. When I was on my break, I grabbed a. I. Weirdest thing, I liked a pre-ripe pear. Like a green pear. And I was into that. And I could eat those and chew on them. I don’t know if it was the texture of them. They were like an apple. That was my. Now, I mean, obviously I love peaches now, but I. They were fuzzier back then, too. I’m insistent on that.
Lisa: Oh yeah?
Jamie: And maybe I’m crazy, but I think they used to be fuzzier. And I think that as we’ve gotten into some of these different hybrids that aren’t the Elberta and whatever, maybe that’s true. But I see the new peaches and I’m like, they’re not fuzzy.
Lisa: Interesting. I do. I. I think even over the last few years, they’re less fuzzy. Even though over, like five to 10 years.
Jamie: The peaches of my childhood were a face full more than a mouthful. I was. I was like, pears are clean. I’ll just eat those.
Lisa: I love the pears here. I think they’re amazing.
Jamie: They are wonderful. They are highly underrated.
Lisa: I agree!
Jamie: Have you had the Bosc ones, or the Asian pears?
Lisa: Yeah. Oh, yeah, Those are really good.
Jamie: Those are amazing. All those plums they sell.
Lisa: The plums are so good.
Jamie: Nectarines are an interesting one because those used to be controversial.
Lisa: Really?
Jamie: I forget exactly what it was, if they attract a certain thing or they’re worried about hybrid. Hybridization or whatever. But for a long time we didn’t have nectarines. And now, like, I’ll go grab them now. And. Man. And they dry really well too, so I’ll dehydrate those.
Lisa: I don’t thing I’ve had a local nectarine yet.
Jamie: I think I want to say I get them at McLean’s.
Lisa: Okay, cool. Is there anything that you. That you used to have here or used to enjoy here, that isn’t here anymore that you really miss, or that you think Palisade is missing?
Jamie: I’m going through in my head all the things that I was. I mean, we have a lot of the things that we used to have. It hasn’t changed that much. You know, one of the complaints that I hear is restaurant stuff. And if you’ve been here for over 15 years, you will remember that we could not keep a restaurant in business for more than a year, or two years. And now we’ve got five. And plus the pizzeria and two pizza places. Oh, I know what it is. I know what I miss, it’s home football games.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Jamie: And so I tell people about this all the time. Where the laundromat is now, it used to be the pizzeria and now where El Rey is. That was a social gathering spot when I was a kid because the football games were at the Peach Bowl and they had lights and they played at night. And after the game everybody would just walk to the pizzeria. And that was cool. And so something like that. I. I would love it if our football games were in Palisade. Those were fun. And they did that through 97, I think. 97, 98 was about the end of that. And then they’ve been in Stocker. But it’s just like I went to the basketball games last night. It’s so fun to go to local things.
Lisa: Yeah, absolutely. Draws a lot of people out.
Jamie: Having football here, it draws people out and then they go somewhere afterwards. That was a cool thing. And I remember, you know, at Stocker they have all that security, but here at Peach Bowl, all the kids would play football behind the end zone. There was a massive football game behind the end zone. And when they moved the football games to the. To the new high school, there’s the practice field there. So all the kids were always playing there. And that’s, you know, I was talking to the girls basketball coach, Don Bavor, about that, because he’s got this great following of middle school girls that just stalk the basketball team. And I said, that’s it. That’s what you want. And all the programs need that of, these younger kids that look up to the older kids, like they’re, you know, idols and they want to play and they want to practice and that gets them working towards something. And that’s your next generation. And I remember when it was like that with football in town, because we would have. And I don’t think you can do that at Stocker at all. I don’t know where the kids would go run around.
Lisa: Yeah. No. Oh my gosh. I know growing up, going to games, you’d play under the bleachers and just generally do dangerous things. So yeah, no, that’s a good one.
Jamie: I mean, we’ve got, we’ve got good ice cream places. We’ve got good restaurants. We have pizza. We’ve got great pizza. You know, I think as much as people say, man, this place has changed a ton, it hasn’t changed that much. You know, like, our emphasis is still agriculture. You know, everybody loves it. You just have more people coming to enjoy it and observe it, and that’s fine. But it’s still, especially for most of the weekdays, it’s still pretty quiet.
Lisa: Yeah. In the winter it’s still very quiet.
Jamie: You still have a lot of town people walking around and people are still really friendly. And, you know, we haven’t had a ton of expansion and we haven’t had a bunch of peach orchards ripped out. So I think it’s. It’s stayed pretty stable. I think it’s kept its character pretty nice. So it isn’t one of the. You know, when I see a city like Glenwood that’s changed dramatically where it’s not recognizable, that scares me. We’re not like that. And so it’s still a lot of the place I remember. So.
Lisa: Yeah. And it seems like with town board and planning commission and staff and everything, there really is that focus on keeping Palisade what Palisade is, versus growth for growth’s sake.
Jamie: Yeah. And I think that that was really codified with the Palisade game plan. And I was really relieved when that came out because that gave us legislative teeth to do what everybody wanted us to be able to do. Because before, you know, when you’re making those decisions on the board, you have to follow rules. You can’t just do whatever you want. You can’t just say, I don’t want this because I don’t like it. You have to have a basis, because those applicants have a basis for what they want. They have rights. They have, you know, this is what this is. And being able to say for sure this isn’t what Palisade wants. It’s written right here. This is, these are our wishes, this is our thing. Man, that was a great thing to get done. And the planning commission and the board worked really hard on that. And that’s, that’s a great thing. And I’m grateful for that too. And I think that’s helped keep everything the way we want it to be.
Lisa: Yeah. It makes sense to have that community. It’s like a community document that says, this is who we are, this is what we want to be. And you have that framework to evaluate everything that comes before you. So it’s essential.
Jamie: You know and as a citizen, you can use that. If there’s something that is brought up, that’s an application and you want to speak publicly, you can say, obviously you want to be correct about it. If you study it and you understand it and you can see, hey, this is explicitly not a part of what we all agreed to. You can make that claim. And it’s a compelling argument and I appreciate that. So that’s a good, productive way for people to, you know, really kind of express what they. What they feel.
Lisa: Yeah. Good tip.
Jamie: Here’s a funny story. I was talking to my students. So I’m also a teacher. I was talking to my students about how ChatGPT gets information. And we were talking about the pros and the cons of it. And I was talking to them about metadata and it’s like a super Google and how it just pulls from stuff. And they don’t have access to it on their computers, they can’t use it, but I can access it on mine. And I said, here, I’ll give you an example. Let’s see what happens. I took a shot. This could have gone bad. It wasn’t going to go bad, but I just put into ChatGPT is Jamie Somerville from Palisade a good boy?
Lisa: Oh boy.
Jamie: And it was interesting that all of the things that it pulled from were the Palisade Post. Which is our little, you know, we have an on-again, off- again online paper. Are you ChatGPTing right now?
Lisa: I’m just gonna Google it and see.
Jamie: So but some of my comments on other podcasts and then everything from my time on the board and it said, “so we feel pretty good that he’s a good boy.” And then it put a little dog emoji next to me and I was like, thank you, ChatGPT.
Lisa: That’s hilarious. Let’s see if it knows. Jamie Somerville is a well known figure in the Palisade, Colorado community.
Jamie: And he asks really weird questions to us.
Lisa: They are not making, the Google AI is not making a judgment on your status of whether or not you’re a good boy.
Jamie: So you use. Is that. What is that Gemini?
Lisa: Yeah. Look at this one. Opinions on him in public forums appear mixed with some of your reactions. Oh, God. I don’t ever want to Google myself. Like this.
Jamie: I’m gruff.
Lisa: That’s hilarious.
Jamie: He can’t even grow facial hair. But I’m gruff.
Lisa: That’s really scary. Anyway, now this will be more data about you that it might change its mind after.
Jamie: I’ve gotta get better press. I don’t think that came up on my ChatGPT search.
Lisa: The grouch.
Jamie: No.
Lisa: It hadn’t taken that into account yet. It hadn’t crawled, that page yet, I guess.
Jamie: Yeah. It will now though, because of this.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: When you ask, am I a good boy? They’re like, no, he’s so grouchy. He got named the town grouch.
Lisa: Yeah. Well, it does know that the grouch is a good-spirited program. Somehow. Good-natured. Somehow it knows that.
Thanks to Jamie for entertaining me with his grouchiness. And be sure to follow the Palisade Lions Club for more details about the 2026 and future grouch contests.
Stay tuned for the next episode, Town Grouch Part 2: Grouches of Palisade Past, where we’ll hear from Mary Lincoln, JJ Fletcher, and other past town grouches on what their time as the grouch meant to them. We’ll also dive into the history of Palisade’s grouch contest and learn about other town grouches across North America.
The podcast’s theme music is Riverbend, by Geoff Roper.
Thanks for listening. With love, from Palisade.