I am lucky enough to live 6 miles from this small town. Looks like a picture-postcard New England tourist town, doesn’t it? But, there are still useful stores – a hardware store, a cheese shop, a bookstore, a shoe shop. There’s also a gallery that sells the most gorgeous jewelry (useful in its own way!)

We get our share of out-of-towners (Walden Pond is nearby), but a town like this survives only because the locals support it. My husband and son are there picking up last minute gifts. I just came back. No, the sweater I got my husband wasn’t on sale, but it’s exactly what I had in mind for him, and the shop owner is the father of a son’s classmate. I figure that I got just what I wanted – not only the sweater, but also this community.