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So there are a few things the Owl envies about Wayland. Definitely not their orange and black school colors, nor their conservation trails. Owl envy centers on Russell’s, as well as their plethora of restaurants (JINDU! The Chat!) and retail. One of the retail places I most love is the Wayland Depot, in their historic 1881 train station which is in GREAT shape and like Weston’s has no air conditioning and marginal heat and therefore is only open in spring and fall. The grand opening for spring 2023 was Wednesday, March 8.

The Wayland Depot is a charitable organization that was established and incorporated in the state of Massachusetts in 1980, and is a member of the Women’s Federated Exchanges. It is filled with fun craft stuff and Wayland Boosters items and things with Wayland’s names and zip codes on them. Argh. Go ‘cats. Plus beautiful ceramics, cards, maple syrup, jewelry and crafts. And books by local authors. And handmade cat nip packets.

When the Owl swooped in having seen the giant OPEN flag flying out front, one volunteer was in place organizing the stuff, some of which is being switched over from Christmas/winter stuff to spring stuff. “Stuff” being the operative term as there is something for everyone here and all of it is locally made in or near Massachusetts. While we were chatting, one of the local crafters came in and updated her items (one of which was the cat nip packet of which I bought three and Bobby Sweetface the one-eared cat here at home is in in a drug-happy phase at the moment). And then Wayland author Juliette Fay stopped in to sign a book and put it on the shelf and happy chatting was had by all.

Why do we not have one of these in Weston? Forget the old train station which seems to make everyone crabby. Let’s pop up a shop on BPR, no? Empty storefronts–hey how about a six month lease, three in spring, three in fall. Weston Boosters stuff, local Weston authors (we have several), crafts by our crafties, etc. Or…wait for it… let’s use the JST barn until we get a restaurant in. Or the pink ballroom, let’s do that one. I may get hate mail shortly from various organizations opposed to using our beautiful JST this way…but maybe we should actually use the JST, no? Just a thought.

Okay, daydream over. Head over to Wayland Depot, ignore the orange stuff, chat with the volunteers and buy nice stuff for your friends. Shop local!

The Wayland Depot 1 Cochituate Rd., Wayland, Massachusetts 508-358-5386   

THE WAYLAND DEPOT is a charitable organization established and incorporated in the state of Massachusetts in 1980, and is a member of the Women’s Federated Exchanges. Consignors should email info@waylanddepot.com for an appointment.