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.

Sarah Babin
As we walked into the dark musty mill on a dark rainy October day it was like it was early on Halloween and I was walking into a very real haunted house. The water dripping down from the leaky roof was like the blood from the people who used to work at the mill...the ones that were injured there or even killed at our old mill in Brewer.                                                

There were birds flying above our heads like the bats flying above on Halloween night. Every time we turned a corner we had no idea what to expect, what to see or what to smell. There were shadows on the walls from who? We don't know. There was one shadow on the wall that I will never forget, as my friend Rowan and I turned a corner we saw this dark figure on the wall that looked like it was holding a gun, and pointing it at us. After that, Rowan and I couldn't be split apart. We were linked arm and arm for a couple of reasons: one, we were afraid someone was going to come and kill us and two we were afraid we would see a cockroach or a rat the size of an over-sized potato. Thank goodness though, we never saw one. Although, we did see a shadow from Manley DeBeck, our tour guide and former worker from the mill. So we were terrified that we would see a bug or rodent and it didn't help that two boys kept screaming "RAT!" or "COCKROACH!"

Despite the fact that the mill was dark, cold, with a permeating odor, and spider-infested, it was actually fascinating. Being able to see some history that happened in my home town is indescribable. It was so neat walking around this mill that was running for over 100 years. It was quite amazing that as you were walking around the mill you could see the personalities of all the workers who used to work there, from the red elevator door with all the signatures to a bucket hanging from the ceiling to fill with water to pull a prank on anyone that would walk by.

Our 7th grade class made history at that mill. We were part of something that only comes by once in a lifetime. We were asked what we would like the mill to be turned into and that is something very special. I say that because what we said made a difference and not many people listen to 12 and 13 year olds.

The thing I will never forget about the mill is seeing all the machines torn apart and all across the floor and that made me think of the peoples hearts getting torn apart after they found out their beloved mill would be closing down.

The question I wonder most about is, now that the mill has been closed down for two years what are all those hundreds of laid-off people doing? Do they hope, wish and pray that the mill will come back to life?

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