A summer night in Jaffrey

We took a ride last night to pick up some groceries at Market Basket in Rindge. (No, we didn't go there to avoid the sales tax. MB is the best supermarket in the area and Rindge is not that much farther than a drive to lesser stores.) In a "while we're here" thought, we continued up the road to Jaffrey, for a visit to Kimball's and a quick look around town.
My mother grew up on a dairy farm in Jaffrey, a short distance from town on the road to Peterborough. Jurva's Dairy had the highest butterfat content of any milk in the area. When grandfather's health declined in the early 50s, they sold the farm and moved to St. Albans, Vermont to live with my aunt's family. My cousins grew up in town. My oldest cousin has one of the glass milk bottles from the farm.
As we passed the D.D Bean match factory, the road takes a slight bend to the left. The road, the river, the hill, the sight of all of them knocked the breath from me for a moment, taking me to when the world was black and white, when there were places that were warm and safe and simple. We were still a ways from the farm, but the fabric of space-time bent with the road and let me look and feel and smell what was then.
We took the turn onto Old Sharon Road and crossed the long-gone railroad bed. Stories have it that when my grandmother had had enough of farm life, or of my grandfather, she'd put on her coat, grab her suitcase, and walk down the hill to catch the train that ran from Peterborough to Worcester.
The new people who own the property operate it as a working farm and farm stand, Coll's Farm. The family has long connections to Jaffrey.They've always been kind and respectful when we've invoked our law of return and wandered the grounds.
When we got to the farm, I looked around to try to remember where the barn had been and could only guess. The older kids have a better sense of the farm. I remember the barn and being up in the hayloft. I remember better the view across the valley, to the farms on the other hillside. My cousins may remember the names of the people who owned those farms. I'll have to ask them.  I haven't been in touch in quite a while.