My Grandma is Trailer Trash....

[ScreamingMeemie]

I feel I have to post this as a thread from earlier today has been bothering me all day. I really must get a few things off my chest.

The next time any of us thinks of using the stereotype trailer trash...please think of this:

As a child, "Grandma's House" was a mobile home. It was and is the only home that I ever remember them living in. They bought it in 1967 and they were proud of it. My grandmother kept it newer than new clean, as only grandmothers seem to be able to do. There were never any old tires, furniture, or appliances in the yard...only blooming rose bushes, tomato plants, my grandfather's grill and a wonderful wrought iron patio set. It was a beautiful home inhabited by beautiful people. My 82 year old grandma still lives there, and still keeps it nice and inviting to the best of her abilities.

As a young single mom, my parents had allowed me to live with them. I say allowed, because they were not really happy about it, but what is one to do? Then came the day their home was foreclosed upon. My father was a casualty of "trickle down economics", forfeiting his brewing industry job (30 years) to ReaganCo's ideals...My best option at the time was to buy a used mobile home and move myself and my little girl into it. And we were glad. And it was a wonderful home. It was the first home I was able to provide for my daughter. It was the home I was to bring my husband home to.... It was the home in which we anguished over too many babies longed for and lost...It was the home in which we finally brought our long awaited, and much adored, son home to. It was the home that I cried over leaving as I packed us up for our trip to "move on up" to the boring suburbs which we now call home. I cried thinking of how my husband (then boyfriend) let my daughter write her name all over the floor before he layed down new carpet. I cried thinking of how we partitioned off one side of the living room to make room for a crib... I thought of the parties we had...for our wedding...my daughter's adoption by my husband...birthdays...and on and on. And I didn't really want to leave. And yet never, not once, did I have an instance where this home or this neighborhood became the subject of the local news or national "Cops" show.

My new home? The very first summer we were here, the FBI shot down the door of our neighbors across the street and down a few houses on a drug bust. And this in an upperish middle class neighborhood. Funny, eh?


Sorry if I have stepped on any toes in this posting. That wasn't my intent.

Laura

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. I've have alot of mobile home living relatives

To my knowledge none of them have appeared on COPS. Mobiles are both inexpensive and well built and provide a very economical solution to the housing problems we have in New England, part of their value is in the negative stereotype they have (but if it lowers the rent then hey...) the other is small size.

Still, I'd take a mobile over the two bedroom "garden style" condo I lived in for 5 years.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. You and me both. And my current "home" sits closer to our neighbor"s

than our "trailer" did. I loved it! :hi:

[BiggJawn]

2. My happiest years were spent with wheels in the crawlspace, too.

First 10 years out on my own I spent in a trailer park (no, it was NOT a "mobile home community" it pre-dated those)
Those were the happiest of my life. lot of "livin' and lovin'" and friends partying...Now I live in an apartment and have to put up with the noise from my neighbours screwing their brains out all the time. with nothing to "get back at them" with...

I miss my trailers. At least they were PAID FOR (unlike the house that bancrupted me)

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. I will say that my neighbors were definitely closer and more giving

in the neighborhood we lived in. I miss that closeness. People cared more there. :hi:

[BiggJawn]

25. I don't even KNOW my neighbours now.

Kinda perverse, isn't it? I don't know HER name, but I do know she's multi-orgasmic...

The people in the house next door? I think they moved. Haven't been any lights on or any vehicles besides the junker in the back yard for a while...I never knew their names, either.

We used to know each other in the trailer park.

[lazarus]

3. in that case

your grandmother wasn't "trailer trash", she lived in a mobile home.

:D

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Hehe.

There are those that would still think of her as mobile home trash though, sadly. :hi:

[madrchsod]

4. your grandmother did not

have firebird or camareo up on concrete blocks so she can`t be called trailer trash....

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Some don't require that.

You live in a "trailer" therefore you must be trailer trash. My comment was that there are no exceptions made when this stereotype is used.

[prolesunited]

5. My brother, along with his wife

and three children live in one. He barely graduated high school and is not college material. Neither is she. She stays home with the kids because any job she could get would cost her more than she makes in daycare.

Every time he gets a decent job in manufacturing, he is downsized or the company is bought out and they are back to square one, doing their best to dig out each time. He is constantly trying to make improvements and the kids a bit of yard to play in.

They work hard and do the best they can. I don't think anyone should be slammed for that.

I'm glad you posted this. I think such stories brings understanding and then empathy and compassion.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. My husband is in manufacturing too. That was the difficulty we had

although my husband has always done well. Our home purchase was a stretch at first...it is only now, 5 years later, that I feel comfortable with our financial situation.

Best of luck to your brother. :hi:

[belladonna]

6. I couldn't agree with you more

I tried not to reply to that thread last night, but I just couldn't go to bed without saying something. I see way too much of this around here and it's very disappointing, to say the least. I honestly think that the poster didn't mean anything horrible by it, it's just way too easy to poke fun at the whole trailer park trash thang... so, if that wasn't the original posters intent, no hard feelings on MY part.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. It was hard not to reply. I don't think he meant anything horrible by it

either. I just get so sad seeing stereotypes perpetuated here. :hi:

[Droopy]

7. Great post, MrsGrumpy

I lived in a mobile home to when I was in my early twenties. I was making 7 bucks an hour working in a machine shop. It was the only thing I could afford. I couldn't even afford an apartment. The area I lived in was one of the poorest in the city, but I never had any trouble with crime. And while some of the mobile homes in that park were old and run down most were well kept. And there was a sense of community in that park that is missing in the suburb that I currently live in. In the park people actually socialized with their neighbors and I made some good friends living there. It's an experience that I will never forget.

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. It was a much closer community, and one that I miss.

Here, we step inside our little side by side, brick cubicles...and most times never really see each other until the next day. :hi:

[mongo]

8. Thanks for posting this!

You know in my travels up and down the economic scale, I've found that on the whole the most decent, giving and civil folks live with simple means.

Money may very well be the root of all evil...

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. I think you may be close to the truth there mongo...

in having it, many of us forget what is what like to not have it...and be looked down upon because of it. :hi:

[trof]

9. I lived in a trail...uh...MOBILE HOME.

For about a year in Daleville, Alabama.
One bedroom, single-wide.
I was working at Ft. Rucker.
I liked it. Kind of like living aboard ship.
You could clean the place up in about 12 minutes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. I miss that part too...! I forget I have a basement here sometimes, and

it shows. ;)

[Debi]

10. We have a young woman who comes to work with our son...

And she just had a baby...he parents bought her a mobile home and she is only responsible for the lot rent (hell of a lot less than renting an apartment). Our housewarming gift? A pink flamingo with different seasonal outfits...her neighbors love it...and give her grief when the outfits don't match the season.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. I want one of those!! Lucky girl to have parents like ours.

We gave ours to my Father in law when we moved out of it, and he was happy there too. :hi:

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. Great post.

Thanks.

[ScreamingMeemie]

23. Thank you!

:hi: I feel much better now!

[Donkeyboy75]

22. Yep. Just another form of elitism that liberals are supposed to

oppose. I've seen both ends of the mobile home spectrum. In high school, I lived in a half-suburban half-rural school district. I had a friend who lived in a trailer park, and it was B-A-D bad. Teeming with drug dealers and all-around assholes. On the other hand, one of my mother's friends had a Ph.D. in agriculture and made some serious cash. He lived in a well kept trailer park because he liked the lifestyle. Thanks for your post.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. It takes all kinds...and usually all kinds are found all over.

:hi: My parents fit into the category of those who could afford a home but choose to live in a "trailer" because it's lower maintenance for them. And they have a beautiful 1600 s.f. home.

[KG]

26. living in manufactured housing doesn't make one 'Trailer Trash'

Trailer Trash is a lifestyle and a mind set.

you can find 'Trailer Trash' livihg in nice houses - there is some living in the White House right now!

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. Exactly!

Which is why I was kind of sad to see the stereotype here. :(

:hi:

[Teddy_Salad]

27. Hear!! Hear!!!

Those trailer park bashing threads piss me off.

The kind of thing I'd expect to see at Free Republic, not here.

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. Me too Teddy. But I feel better now that I got it off my chest.

:hi:

[Rowdyboy]

30. The quality of the material making up a home

is inconsequential. The quality of those inhabiting the home is what's important

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. That was really well said Rowdyboy!

:hi:

And as an appraiser, I have to say, some of those "trailers" are better built than what qualifies as a quality built new home these days! :)