Winchester, MA

THE REAL WINCHESTER: Winchester, or Winchedda, is a seemingly serene and quiet small town that radiates a familiar, “everybody knows everybody” type atmosphere. Down town Winchester, often referred to as dt, is quite a welcoming sight with its beautiful scenery and charming stores such as The Dugout, Joe’s Main Street Pizza, and Video Horizons. Winchester’s residents are extremely wealthy, privileged, and selfish, because their abundance of money never gets put back into the actual town itself. The high school is extremely run down and was designed originally to be a prison, making it quite a depressing confinement. The school never seems to have enough teachers or resources, yet its students’ families are drowning in affluence. At night the small town community practically shuts down, without a car in sight and the substantial population of senior citizens tucked cozily into their beds, sleeping soundly with all the financial comfort imaginable. Converse to the outward appearance of a subtle and lackluster nightlife, teenagers of the town drink like mad and party heavily. Growing up in an atypical society where parents grow accustomed to their children underage drinking and devote their efforts into preventing drunk driving and brainless actions involving encounters with law enforcement, the typical kid begins drinking at about 8th or 9th grade, becoming more routine and excessive with it through high school. Motivated by the lack of enlivenment of their town, the high schoolers throw massive parties, or “ragers”, whenever dim-witted and trusting parents leave town, turning their home into what is known as an “open house”. Parties are frequent as is the practice of alcoholism. Intoxication is heavily glorified, fueling most teens to drink enormous amounts of alcohol each night of the weekend. When there are no open houses, social gatherings are arranged in the fells (woods). Kids flock to well known places such as The Jumping Rock and Narnia deep in the forest, havens far from the reach of cops. Most every kid not only drinks but also smokes weed because of its ease of access. Somewhat ironically, it’s much easier to attain than alcohol. “Wake and Bakes”, when kids smoke before school are very popular along with smokeless tobacco. Athletes and jocks are expectedly placed on somewhat of a social pedestal, but in no comparison to most schools. Rarely will you find a stereotypical jock lurking through the halls shoving freshmen into lockers; that just isn’t Winchester. The football team is notorious for its mediocrity (generously put), however lacrosse and wrestling do extremely well. The majority of the student body is intelligent considering it’s a public school. The high school slang is incredibly unique and constantly changing. Doing smokeless tobacco is often called packing a dip, lip, bomb, ding, dinger, and even something as simple as packin’ a guy. Marijuana is often referred to as weed, pot, binger, ripping bong, and ripping bing.