Chapter Five
Ruff and Tough Times at Retail High
The specific details of that early period in Buch Spieler's history are a bit sketchy. Sleep deprivation had become my way of life. Financial instability was a serious obstacle to moving forward. Simply staying afloat became an all consuming obsession. It would destroy a deep and loving long-term relationship. It would short-circuit even the possibility of a personal relationship beginning with anyone other than 'Buch Spieler'. The survival of the business had become my life and I often asked myself, "Is this anyway to live?"
By now, and I'm guessing this was sometime in early 1974, I had quit working the 7am-to-3pm shift at Sprague Electric Company. The security of that paycheck was gone. Buch Spieler had become my sole financial support and it could barely support the overhead of the space it existed in. It could not support both me and my partner, George, at least not at that time, and George seemed to have become frustrated and restless - with the business; with me; with Montpelier; with the struggle of working your heart out at trying to do something the best you can with the limited resources you have and just not being recognized or appreciated for it.
To this day, I'm not really sure where George is. It's kind of tragic. He was one of my best friends from high school, college and partner in business. When I bought out his share of the business about a year or so after we opened (mostly with money I had saved from my job at Sprague Electric), we drifted apart. George spent more time alone with his wife. He got a job managing the record department of Harry's Discount Store on the strip road between Montpelier and Barre. Harry's was an early proto-type of the Big-Box store of today (but at least Harry's was locally owned). It hurt in a way that George was now competing with our creation and me but I understood why he did it. He needed to make a living, just like me, but he didn't have the blind faith in Buch Spieler that I did.
One day some time later, I went to George's apartment on Elm Street in Montpelier and found it completely vacant. He had moved away and didn't even tell me. Pretty weird.
Between then and now, I have been in touch with George only a couple of times. It would be nice to know that he is alive and well because I think of him and the remarkable times of our lives that we shared together.
It's approaching the mid '70's and I'm running the store alone. This was a sure recipe for trouble and imminent disaster. This was when my brother, Dennis, came along to save the day.
(CONTINUED) written by Fred Wilber, November 1999
eMail
Buch Spieler Music
27 Langdon Street
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
Telephone 802.229.0449
Fax 802.229.5047
sales@bsmusic.com
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Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-4pm