Our Neighborhood Grocery Store
We are often asked why or how we chose to move to Amesbury. In truth, it was the furthest south on I-95 that we could get and still afford a house. Part of our criteria was buying a house that we could support on just one income. We pretty much achieved that with our house in Amesbury. We'd have to have a much leaner life style than now, but I digress.
We were richly rewarded for moving to Amesbury, even though our criteria was pretty narrow. We had no idea how much we would love this town. I have written about our neighborhood and the joy it brings other postings. I suppose that this blog starts a small series on the wonders of Amesbury itself.
Amesbury is home to many small wonders, indeed. We have a small, locally owned movie theater in the downtown, which serves dinner. Amesbury is on the mouth of the Merrimack River and of course, our own beloved Powwow River runs through town, dropping 90 feet in the falls of downtown, rushing to meet the Merrimack. Like most New England towns, Amesbury has a rich history of industry. It was once the "carriage capitol" of the world - home to 26 different carriage companies and producing more carriages that any other location on earth. As a result, it is also home to some of the first automobiles in the USA, including the Bailey car. Amesbury was also a place for high fashion - or at least, the makers of high fashion, with the Merrimack Hat Factory, which eventually had six sites in the USA and one in Canada before it closed in 1952. I once read some some of the first labor strikes were held in Amesbury, but I cannot find that source now. We have some wonderful thriving restaurants in a town the size of Amesbury, which is a real treat, given that we have lots of competition next door in Newburyport. We have hiking trails, many bodies of water, and even something called Town Forest (in addition to Town Park, and yes, Town Pond).
But, I digress. Boy, do I digress.
The real purpose of this blog was to talk about our neighborhood grocery store. Shortly after we moved to Amesbury we discovered our local grocery store. If I removed a single building from its foundation I could actually see the store from inside our house. Vermette's is a small, but full grocery store. I know that "city folk" are used to having neighborhood grocery stores, but I have never been a city folk, and with the exception of "natural health food stores," have primarily shopped at large chain stores, such as Shaw's, Market Basket, Stop & Shop, Hannaford, the Big Y and the like. Vermette's is a blessing! I just walk a small way up my street, up the concrete block steps that Bob built to go over the retaining wall, through the back of the church yard, and I'm in the parking lot of Vermette's! It is a small wonder every time I make the trip. In addition to being a small grocery store, where I recognize all of the employees, and I can find almost everything that I need, their chicken is the best I have ever tasted. They butcher all of their own meats and have their own marinades, too. I still get over-run with excitement when I visit Vermette's. One time as I was spouting this excitement to the cashier, she noted that she couldn't really understand my excitement. After all, she's been working there for the last 42 years and everything pretty much seemed the same to her. She was lucky I didn't grab her and kiss her, right there!
I'm not making my best use of my blog today. Perhaps it's because I've been ill and I'm still on the mend. I'll close with these pictures that I snapped when I was in Vermette's when no one else was looking and some that I stole from their website.
We were richly rewarded for moving to Amesbury, even though our criteria was pretty narrow. We had no idea how much we would love this town. I have written about our neighborhood and the joy it brings other postings. I suppose that this blog starts a small series on the wonders of Amesbury itself.
Amesbury is home to many small wonders, indeed. We have a small, locally owned movie theater in the downtown, which serves dinner. Amesbury is on the mouth of the Merrimack River and of course, our own beloved Powwow River runs through town, dropping 90 feet in the falls of downtown, rushing to meet the Merrimack. Like most New England towns, Amesbury has a rich history of industry. It was once the "carriage capitol" of the world - home to 26 different carriage companies and producing more carriages that any other location on earth. As a result, it is also home to some of the first automobiles in the USA, including the Bailey car. Amesbury was also a place for high fashion - or at least, the makers of high fashion, with the Merrimack Hat Factory, which eventually had six sites in the USA and one in Canada before it closed in 1952. I once read some some of the first labor strikes were held in Amesbury, but I cannot find that source now. We have some wonderful thriving restaurants in a town the size of Amesbury, which is a real treat, given that we have lots of competition next door in Newburyport. We have hiking trails, many bodies of water, and even something called Town Forest (in addition to Town Park, and yes, Town Pond).
But, I digress. Boy, do I digress.
The real purpose of this blog was to talk about our neighborhood grocery store. Shortly after we moved to Amesbury we discovered our local grocery store. If I removed a single building from its foundation I could actually see the store from inside our house. Vermette's is a small, but full grocery store. I know that "city folk" are used to having neighborhood grocery stores, but I have never been a city folk, and with the exception of "natural health food stores," have primarily shopped at large chain stores, such as Shaw's, Market Basket, Stop & Shop, Hannaford, the Big Y and the like. Vermette's is a blessing! I just walk a small way up my street, up the concrete block steps that Bob built to go over the retaining wall, through the back of the church yard, and I'm in the parking lot of Vermette's! It is a small wonder every time I make the trip. In addition to being a small grocery store, where I recognize all of the employees, and I can find almost everything that I need, their chicken is the best I have ever tasted. They butcher all of their own meats and have their own marinades, too. I still get over-run with excitement when I visit Vermette's. One time as I was spouting this excitement to the cashier, she noted that she couldn't really understand my excitement. After all, she's been working there for the last 42 years and everything pretty much seemed the same to her. She was lucky I didn't grab her and kiss her, right there!
I'm not making my best use of my blog today. Perhaps it's because I've been ill and I'm still on the mend. I'll close with these pictures that I snapped when I was in Vermette's when no one else was looking and some that I stole from their website.
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| The original Vermettes (taken from their website). |
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| Vermette's today (taken from their website). |
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| The entrance to Vermette's. |
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| I love their hand-written signs advertising the specials of the day. |
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| More had-written advertisements. |
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| Vermette's inside. |
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| Vermette's inside. |
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| Vermette's inside - the produce isle. |
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| Vermett'es meats in a marinade. |
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| Vermette's meats. |
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