Features
Pigs DO Fly!
Pigs DO Fly!
This lesbian-owned bookstore is thriving, bucking a book
economy that favors the big boys
by Susan McMillan
Driving
out of Burlington, south on Route 7, furniture stores and car dealerships
quickly give way to barns and open fields. As you crest a long hill, the
narrowing Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks rise up, a vista reminiscent
of fjords. Turn right at the Charlotte light toward the Essex ferry, and
you'll see a neat white house with brightly striped awnings, a picket
fence, a brilliant blue sign - and a rainbow flag. You are about to enter
a world of color and chaos and kids: The Flying Pig bookstore.
Who would be crazy enough to buck
the trend of independent bookstore closings by opening a boutique shop
in "downtown" Charlotte? Two amiable bibliophiles, Elizabeth
Bluemle and Josie Leavitt, would be that crazy, and they say this enterprise
is purely a labor of love.
Thirteen years ago, a love of reading
brought these women together. Josie (39) and Elizabeth (40) met when they
were literacy volunteers in New York City. With vague plans to teach and
write, they moved to Vermont in 1996. Within weeks, a small cottage -
at various times home to a market, a café, and the post office
- came up for rent in Charlotte. Josie and Elizabeth wondered how this
space might be maintained as a gathering place for the community. Ten
weeks later, without a business background between them, they opened the
bookstore.
Now in its eighth year, The Flying
Pig has seen its first young customers go off to college. "It's phenomenal
to see kids grow," Leavitt says, smiling as she recalls a child who
fondly called the store "Josie's House." They've watched little
readers grow up, and they know each of their customers by name. Not surprisingly,
this one-room establishment has a loyal client base. They know it's summer
when certain families walk through the door, just off the ferry and headed
to camp. When kids come in to buy gifts for a birthday party, Josie and
Elizabeth make careful recommendations so the birthday child does not
receive duplicates. Try finding that attention to detail at a box store.
Is this tiny oasis defying the
trend of the monster book stores? Not really, Josie reports, but sales
are up a bit every year. This colorful, fun-filled shop is bursting at
the seams with 40,000 books, including 8,000 titles for adults. Although
not often requested, they do have gay-family-friendly books. Many prices
are discounted, including markdowns for teachers, librarians, and book
clubs. And they will order any title you want. Although surely the ease
of Internet book-buying is competition, Josie is confident that real book
lovers will always want to hold a book, browse the shelves, and touch
the pages.
Are they following their bliss? "My
whole life has revolved around books, kids, and writing," says Elizabeth,
who was "born to read." They are passionate about their work
and take great pride in "loving and reading the books" that
they offer. Finding the right book for a child is a challenge and a thrill.
You can feel the enthusiasm as Bluemle remembers a girl hugging a book,
or finding just the right story for a boy who thinks he's not a reader.
When asked for a list of all-time favorite titles, Elizabeth is speechless.
It's an impossible question for a woman who has read thousands of books
since she picked up her first, at the age of three.
Leavitt and Bluemle are having
fun, but it's a lot of work too. I wonder aloud how working and living
together affects their relationship. Josie replies, as if it is obvious,
"I'd rather spend my day with Elizabeth than anyone else." Elizabeth
is more contemplative about their shared labor. "There's just a balance
between us," she says, and that rapport is palpable. While being
interviewed, they spar and laugh together, actively assist several clients,
and speculate as to which of them left the stack of Diary of Anne
Frank books behind the counter.
Both women have interests outside
the store. Josie logs volunteer hours next door at the Charlotte Fire
Department as an EMT and is training to be a crew chief. When not in the
store or saving lives, she is enrolled in an on-line script-writing course
out of UCLA. Elizabeth is in an MFA program, has recently kick-started
the Charlotte Town Players, and will see her own children's book My
Father The Dog, in print in 2005.
When asked if they are accepted
in this small town, Josie says without hesitation "We are seen as
a couple when folks want to see us that way." When these wonderfully
engaging women announced their Civil Union in The Charlotte News, they
received many congratulations. Josie shrugged as she remembered more than
one Take Back Vermont bumper sticker in the parking lot, but those folks
still came into the store without controversy.
I often drive by this colorful haven
near the corner of Route 7 and Ferry Road. I can tell a lot by scanning
the storefront. Lots of cars in the gravel parking lot means school just
let out. If the rainbow flag is not flying, it must be after 6pm. An early
crowd tells me it's the Thursday morning story hour. No matter the time,
I always smile as I pass. It's another world in there and you might want
to check it out, long before pigs fly.
Some of Josie and Elizabeth's recent
favorites, as well as a list of every children's book they know featuring
a major character of the porcine variety, can be found at www.flyingpigbooks.com.
Susan McMillan is the assistant editor of Out in the Mountains
and lives in Charlotte with her partner and their companion animals.