Hollister
– Julie Barkley is a woman with a lot of stories, and she isn’t
shy about sharing one or two. But ultimately the Salinas native is
more content spending time at home, with her seven horses and seven
cats, than bragging about her exploits.
Hollister – Julie Barkley is a woman with a lot of stories, and she isn’t shy about sharing one or two. But ultimately the Salinas native is more content spending time at home, with her seven horses and seven cats, than bragging about her exploits.
“I’m not shy at all,” she admitted. “But around the house it’s pretty mellow.”
Barkley, 41, was raised as the youngest of seven children in Salinas, where her parents were both teachers.
“Being around so many people growing up has taught me to take care of everybody, I’m their keeper,” she said. “But I think it’s good for people to grow up in a big family, because you learn by example.”
After high school, Barkley took on a number of jobs in all sorts of different environments, from the county office of education to the Monterey Peninsula Airport.
During one particularly memorable stint, Barkley says she became the target of bad feelings on the part of a co-worker’s wife.
“I came in to work one morning, and they told me that she had already been there and wanted to kill me – she was on drugs and had written (obscenities) all over my desk,” she said. “And I didn’t even know her husband. I was just a temp!”
Barkley met her husband, Howard, at the financial office where the two worked. Howard, who later would establish the Bank of Salinas, helped Julie through a particularly hard time when she took charge of caring for her terminally ill father. To help her cope with the stress of nursing her father, he bought her first horse, a childhood dream of Barkley’s.
“I’d loved horses ever since I was a kid,” she said. “I always said I wanted two things out of life – a horse and a boob job.”
In order to keep several horses, the Barkleys and daughter Jessica moved to Prunedale, but ran into problems with the neighbors. Ultimately the family decided to move to Hollister and build the home of their dreams – with plenty of room for the family pets.
“Horses are just so cool; they’re just like kids,” she said. “They can be playful or sulky – and sometimes we have to put them on time-out. But they’re just great to have around.”
Today Barkley stays busy as a self-described “domestic engineer,” holding down the fort at home and lending a hand on occasion to her husband, who serves as president of the Salinas Air Show. While Barkley says she loves Hollister and doesn’t plan on going anywhere soon, she would like to go back to work.
“I know I can do anything,” she said. “I just don’t know what I want to do next.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
