Ayer

This is a shot of downtown Ayer, my new home. You can see how March in New England is oh, so gray. Downtown is a group of mismatched businesses with no real identity. I'm so used to living on the coast where tourism defines the towns and they work hard to create an identity.

Ayer's identity has been formed around two historical entities - Ft. Devens and the railroad. Ft. Devens was an army base that was decommissioned in 1994. My father told me he "froze one winter" at Ft. Devens when he was training for WWII. The base began as Camp Stevens where Massachusetts volunteers were trained for the Civil War. The loss of Ft. Devens was a blow to the economy of the region and the towns, like Ayer, which serviced the army.

The railroad still operates here both commuter rail and freight. Once Ayer was a major commercial railroad junction. We hear the freight trains still where I live so I know train transportation is alive and well. I read that this area is on the freight route to Maine from the Southern states. The commuter train, while convenient for me, runs far less often.