In the middle of October, 2006, the Grade Seven students at Brewer Middle School took a field trip to a building that they had seen from a distance for most of their lives, but had never visited up close. The tour guides were various city officials and the future developers of the old paper mill. It was raining quite hard and the students were poorly equipped with flashlight, which added to the overall effect of the visit. What follows are the essays, as written, by roughly half of the students. The essays are presented as written by the students, hoping to preserve their turns of phrase, their usages and their idiosyncrasies as writers.

Mark Moellentine
As I walked into this empty box called the Eastern Fine Paper Mill, it seemed like no one has been here for decades even though the mill shut down only but a few years ago, seeming a life time.  This building felt like it was always the way I saw, never looking normal.  It felt untaken care of, never being repaired if damaged. 

As I started to wander, I came across some debris.  Signs of the employees who worked here rushing out and not even bother picking up the random misplaced items, thus making me wonder how much time they were given to pack up and leave.  Or maybe they were so attached to the mill that they held back on removing the machines, so they could see the place where they worked for most of their lifetimes for a little while longer.

As I continued on through this graveyard of memories, I saw rain pouring from the holes in the ceiling that looked like tears that made this sorrowful building filled with even more dread, and the walls had paint peeling off of them and that seemed reminiscent of scars.  After awhile, I came into a section of the building that smelled of a moist century old attic...and neglect.  

As I walked outside the rain had settled down but the sky was still gloomy, just as it was when I entered the building.  The outside of the building looked better than the inside with only a few broken windows and some debris.  It was like the building was trying to cover up its shame that is its inside.  Then finally we left, not looking back until this building turned its shame into pride.   

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