Ayer At Its Finest

Having lived in Ayer, Ma for what will be 6 years this September, I have grown to love walking downtown when there is snow on the ground and all the restaurants still have their festivity lights hanging upon their stoops. There is just something so magical that just drags me in that direction every time I go out for a walk.

Ayer dates all the way back to 1667, where at time was known as south Groton. Later, in 1871, Ayer was incorporated and named after Dr. James Cook Ayer, a prominent resident of Lowell who provided the funding for the construction of the Town Hall. The growth of this very small town (fun fact: 5% of Ayer is water!) was influenced by a period of rapid development of railroad transportation.

When I first learned that I was going to be moving from Shirley to Ayer (a ten-minute drive between towns), and you can call me a brat for this, I really wasn’t happy with my mom. It was the first move that I experience going to a different school and making new friends. Sadly for me, this was not an easy task. This is when I realized that most of the people in Ayer’s Page Hilltop knew people in Shirley and they were talking about me behind my back. Being bullied did me in, big time. Now when someone has something to say about me I just say to myself “You are better than them, and they obviously have problems about their self-image if they have the need to critique me.”

Ayer has really made me who I am today. Daily coffee shop visits, knowing almost every owner to the family owned restaurants, I even enjoy talking to the people who work at the gas station down the street. I am glad overall that my mom moved us here. I still have friends from Shirley, I have a couple of people that I still talk to from Page Hilltop, and I even have friends who moved from farther towns who had the same tough time that I did. I am happy to say, I am a resident of Ayer!

Here are some photos of Ayer:

(This is East Main St of Ayer)

(This is Park Street Diner)