On the way out of West Stockbridge to get back on the highway, I noticed a sign for West Center Road and Alford Center. I had never even heard of Alford. Since there was a road here, I figured it wasn’t too far off. When I came back after my reunion weekend, I decided to take a side trip to Alford.
It was a little further than I though, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when you’re in that rural area of the state. It was a very pretty area, and it seemed like the type of place that’s a destination, as you wouldn’t go through it to get anywhere else. When I finally got to the center of town, it was just about as quiet as the roads I had been driving. In fact, in the 10 minutes that I hung around and walked the town center, there were only about 5-10 cars that passed through. It’s sort of what my father would call “a wide place in the road”. On one side, there’s the church and the cemetary, and a small building that I think is the town offices. On the other side is a building that houses the library (I think it said that it’s open from Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) with a function room. There was a sign outside announcing a monthly community pot luck.
Upon looking at the website for the town (and the Wikipedia site), I see that it’s the third smallest town in the Commonwealth in terms of population (with 300 or so people) and only Monroe and Gosnold are smaller). The town has its own police, fire and public works departments, but does not have its own post office, and there isn’t cable service in town. They are right next to some bigger towns (notably Great Barrington) so they can get what they need from working with other municipalities.
So, do you know what skills you don’t possess and where to get them?
