Cutting Remarks
by Bill Torrey

Bill Torrey was born in the summer of 1957 with very little fanfare. He was the last of six kids. A sixth generation Vermonter who’s kin were at Fort Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen in 1775, his roots are deeply attached to the forested hills of the state. He grew up on his family’s farmstead in Essex during the 60’s and early ’70’s. Bill grew up knowing when he sat down for supper that his plate full of food came from the garden in the back yard and their cows grazing in the pasture beside the house. It wasn’t “what’s for dinner mom?” It was “who’s for dinner.”

By following the rugged heritage of his family, he was led to a life working in the forests of Vermont. By the time he was 19, he was working as a lumberjack earning eighty cents a tree and all the sawdust he could eat. He soon went off on his own with small, light on the land equipment to better serve the land and his conscience. In the fall of 2013, Bill retired from logging with most of his sanity and darn near all his fingers and toes.

Bill was a member of the Burlington Free Press Writers, and in 2016 his first book was published. The Ta Ta Weenie Club is a collection of twenty-one stories which takes place in Vermont during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, an era before car seats, airbags, and childproof caps. A time and place when a kid could leave the house in the morning to go out and play until dusk with loyal friends and tolerated family. From county fairs and middle school dances, to loving hound dogs to mean teachers, it was a period where a parent’s authority was the law and was backed up by real means. His recent book, Cutting Remarks- Forty Years in the Forest, records his life in the woods. Many of his stories are from these collections.

Bill performed in the first Cocoon at the Mahaney Center for the Arts hosted by Jay Allison, has won four NPR Moth StorySlams, has performed in two NPR Moth GrandSlams at the Flynn Theater and has performed on the Moth MainStage at the sold-out Wilbur Theater in Boston. He won three ExtempoVT Storytelling Competitions and has performed at the Vermont State House and The Vermont Folklife Center.