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.

Paul Qualheim
Off the bus I stepped, dropping my jaw as I glanced at the giant mill.  As I stepped into its deep dark, lair the hairs on my neck stood up on end.  I took another step and, "tingla"; I stepped on a few nuts and bolts that were on the damp, broken up floor. The place was a mess, and yet there were posters and stickers on the walls that said things like "thank you for working safely".

As we all walked into yet another even darker, and much larger room, you could hear the soft pitter patter of rain on the old, aging roof.

Ever further we walked into the murky darkness. Why, might you ask? None other than to observe and learn how and what this hard working giant did in its past days, and why the spirit of this mill was left to die like an unwanted puppy, just thrown out into the harsh cold streets. Some may say that the mill is just a piece of history, but no, the mill is in fact the giant heart of the former mill workers and was very important to the citizens all across Maine.

There were many things at the mill, like old rags, bottles, and various pieces of debris, quite a few machines, workbenches, etc.  Then we went into the basement where there was a dark red door with the names of all of the former mill workers imbedded in it.  I personally thought that they should save that more than anything else.  That door meant that the hard working mill workers wanted to be remembered.

As we left the mill I thought that the mill should be saved as a piece of history and not be remade into another building.

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