Years ago , I was speeding along on the highway , going to a meeting at Vermont Castings Stoves in Randolph , VT . On the side of the road sat a trembling Beagle , painfully covered in long and short and tiny , hard-to-see porcupine quills .
I was late to the meeting , I was tense . But I stopped and gingerly coaxed the hurting Beagle into the car . He was so traumatized , he didn ’ t balk . I inquired in Randolph , found a veterinarian , and as luck ( and it being a small town ) would have it , the ( only ) vet knew the dog , part of a group of hunting dogs . I left him in those experienced hands and sped off to the meeting . It was my first up-close exposure to a porcupine ’ s defense mechanism .
Of course , at the meeting , they all understood why I was late . That ’ s Vermont ! — Margot Mayor
When I first met him , Bill Schubart had two aristocratic , elegant Borzois ( Russian Wolfhounds ). I pulled up to the huge barn in rural North Ferrisburg . They looked up with Vogue-like faces , and then , in a blasé fashion , went back to nosing about in the snow . The vision of them was startling . This was Vermont , not Paris . More recently , Bill and I spoke about dogs . “ It ’ s a statement , like the kind of car you buy ,” Bill said . “ Yes , the kind of dog you get . Yes , the kind of shirt you buy . It ’ s a way of making a statement about yourself . Or the kind of motorcycle you buy . In Vermont , it is Golden Retrievers . Black labs , maybe ? Beagles . When I was a kid , it was mostly hounds . There are not many Yorkshire Terriers in Vermont .” Or Borzois , I noted .
There is that consistent foot-in-two-worlds sense to Bill Schubart . The Borzois embody that . Of an urban New York family , education , and worldliness , he is , on the other hand , of Vermont , down to earth , with no pretenses .
He knows how to split wood and brandish a chain saw , and how to enter an Opera House . Even as a child , he reminisced , he would have a hot dog with ketchup at the fair in Vermont , and then days later , go into the Russian Tea Room in New York with his Grandmother and order blinis .
Bill recalls being a kid trying to live in these two worlds : Park Avenue in New York and Washington highway in Morrisville , Vermont . He was born in New York City , and brought to Vermont . He was raised in Morrisville , but left for visits to NYC , then boarding school and college . Ultimately when he came back , he stayed .
Bill Schubart is one of the most Renaissance-y men I know , anywhere . Music producer , record company owner , board chair , businessman , fiction writer , Op Ed writer , father and husband : the go-to person for more things than I can count .
I met Bill when he owned Philo Records , an internationally-known folk record company . Norwegian , Scottish , Swedish , Irish , Bluegrass , French Canadian music . This diverse , beautifully produced array of international music was respected , admired , and state of the art . The company lived in a huge barn in North Ferrisburg , VT with the Borzois , peacocks , llamas , and its own real caboose on the land . A tiny house before tiny houses existed .
Bill has a documentary-worthy biography . It has always fascinated me , how we get from one step to another in our lives . I asked him how a young guy went from teaching French to high schoolers in Bristol to owning a record company ?
As we sat in the third-floor office in his rambling house , he outlined the stepping stones that led to his intriguing career . In his twenties , he had worked at IBM , while attending UVM . But , not to be shoe-horned , he also invented and created hand painted lit-up ping pong earrings on the side . Being Bill , he sold them to the Museum of Modern Art . Of course . Bill has a charm , coupled with an articulate delivery that people listen to .
Bill worked at a Sam Goody ’ s record store in New York , learning a bit about the music business . NYC wasn ’ t affordable , so he returned ( with his by-then family of four ) to Vermont .
Love of family and love of music called to him , so of course , he ( and his brother Mike , a musician ) decided to start a recording studio . Bill ’ s optimism was catching , “ I had done some recording at school , and loved recording technology .”
He found out there was a pig barn for sale in North Ferrisburg with six acres . “ I was
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