I was in Massachusetts a little over a week ago and when I heard from the Chairwoman of the Wilmington Historical Commission that she was attending a ceremony to commemorate the agreement of the town lines between Wilmington and Andover, I asked if I could be there to see it. I grew up in Wilmington, and was born and raised there, and though I've made New York and New Jersey my home for many years now, there is something in me that loves Massachusetts and Wilmington and the area all around my childhood home that has been growing stronger and stronger each time I return to this place.
The ceremony she was attending is called the Perambulation, and though I'd never heard of it, it's been part of State Law since the 1600's when the towns were first founded. Every five years the Selectmen, and now Selectwomen too, were to gather together at the adjoining town lines to agree on where the town lines were. Over time, it seems, farmers might move a rock or a tree would come down that was adjacent to the marker, and so it was necessary to meet to make sure that everyone was in agreement about where the town lines actually were. By law, if the Selectmen did not meet to do this every five years, there would be a fine of $20. The more I heard about this event before it, during and after, the more I fell in love with the history of these wonderful towns.
On the day of the event, we met just before 9am, driving up to a place where I, for one, hadn't really noticed before that had a town line sign on a sign post and a historic granite marker in the wooded area across the street from it. As the beautiful morning progressed, we learned from the Chairman of the Selectmen of the Town of Andover about the details included in the law, including that after the Selectmen agreed on the town lines they'd share a toast of Champagne. For our purposes that day we had sparkling cider, which seemed perfect on a beautiful fall day.
After the Selectmen agreed on the town line, the two Chairmen, one from Wilmington and one from Andover, painted their respective town initials on the granite marker with black paint, a W for Wilmington and an A for Andover, along with the last two digits of the year. The last year visible on the marker looked to be 1970, so it seems there may be some $20 fees that could be collected if either town wanted to follow up on that.
We had a toast at the first marker and then "perambulated" or walked around to the next one a short way away through the woods. Once again, agreement was reached, marker was painted, and a toast was enjoyed to celebrate.
In all of my time living anywhere I don't know if I've ever had such fun doing something so rooted in history and so much a part of my life today. Joining together with old friends who I've known for all or most of my life and new ones I've been meeting was a joy on this lovely October day with the leaves glowing and the beautiful light of autumn all around us.
