Your assignment today, class, is to write a paper about your home town. You should discuss its industry, its history and its unique features. The paper should be three pages long and typed. Please make sure it is on time.
Click on the individual images for a larger sized image that you can read, typos and all.
This was a college level paper from the days before computers when students had to type and pay attention to whether the carriage was running off the end of the page, and therefore had less time to pay attention to other things, like say, substance. It is really funny if you read it aloud with a Waterville, Maine accent. If you can't do that, then you are a frikkin' Raidah, and if you understand what that means, please know that I feel your pain and will buy you a Moxie any time you like.
Oh, okay, I was going to be cryptic and not tell you what a Raidah is, but I guess that would not be in the blogging spirit, so here it is.
I spent a year in high school in Waterville. A local insult, at least among high school kids, was to call another person a raider. (Pronounced: Raidah!!!!) I didn't understand this but the only thing I could think of was that the mascot of the high school in the neighboring town, Winslow, was a Raider. (I'm not even sure what that would be, but I think it looked like a pirate or something.) Hence, the worst thing you could call your enemy was "Raidah!!!!" As in, "Shut up, you raidah!!!!"
This paper is from the late '60s or early '70s, and it seems the anti-Bangor sentiment outweighed the anti-Winslow sentiment in those days.
Some of my favorite lines are:
"I always thought the Waterville girls were much prittier than Bangor's but that my opinion I guess."
"The local paper is the Waterville Morning Sentenal and I enjoyed reading it in the morning."
"They have a cover charge so it keeps out the riff-raff on big nights such as friday and saturday night."
