In my further adventures of the Meditate Mass 351 Challenge, after visiting Newbury and West Newbury, I set off to visit the third of the six towns I planned on visiting on this day. I crossed over the Merrimack River and soon found myself in the town of Merrimac (I don’t know where the “k” went between the naming of the town and the river!)
What I was most surprised about was that when I came into the town center, almost all the buildings were brick and at least four stories tall. Whereas most towns have a town common or a rotary or something in the middle, this was sort of an open square where cars from four different roads all raced through. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon, so there wasn’t much happening here. There was a bank and a pizza shop (there always seems to be one in every town!) as well as a couple convenience stores. On walking around town, I found out that Merrimac was known for carriage making in its early history, but for the most part manufacturing died out here when most factories moved to the South and Midwest somewhere around the late 1800’s. Since then, the town has gone from agricultural to a bedroom community.
I walked around a few streets in the center trying to drink in the essence if the place (hence the meditation part if what I’m trying to do here!) and I ran into a pottery shop in a side street. I thought that this is like the small scale manufacturing that used to be here. People were craftsmen (trying to think of the non-sexist way to say this here, but failing!) back then, and it seems that in many ways those that remain still are.
After this brief stop, I was on to Amesbury.
So, where have you found remnants of former glory still living today?