After leaving the Old North Bridge in Concord, I realized that I had more time and I decided that I should use my gas money wisely and see what other towns I could also visit on this day. The obvious choice was Carlisle.
Whereas Concord is a town with a notable history and lots of sights to see, Carlisle is much more of a bedroom community. There aren’t many businesses there or things that people know of other than it’s a nice place to live and very quiet. What I noticed most as I was driving toward the center were the bicyclists. I used to do a lot of bike riding, and we would tend to go through places like Carlisle that had roads that weren’t as busy. As this was one of the first warm days of Spring, by the time I got to the center of town, there were dozens of cyclists there at a stop at Fern’s C0untry Store.
There’s a nice little rotary in the center where Route 225 (the only numbered route in town) meets Concord and Lowell Streets and it seems like everyone on a bicycle today was stopping there. This was surprising to me as there is the Bates Farm Ice Cream up the street, and that’s where I always stopped! Inside Fern’s, they had a deli, a liquor store (closed as it was Sunday) and a great collection of local honey (I bought a jar!)
The quirkiest thing was above the cash registers there were about six clocks, but instead of listing times in Tokyo or London, they all had about the same time but listed all the surrounding towns! Quite funny.
I walked around the center and saw the library and the Unitarian Universalist Church, where I’ve gone contra dancing before. It was just such a nice day and everyone was just happy to be outside.
After that, I had to head home, and that would go through Bedford.
So, what little quirks have you found in life that brought you joy?