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WAY bad memory!
Ok...this was a brief time in the very distant past, but yes...I was in fact trailer trash once upon a time. There were so many horrible memories I don't know where to begin!
My ex had just joined the Navy and to say that we were dirt poor didn't even begin to cover it. The trailer was OH so lovely, situated in scenic *wrong side of the tracks* in Memphis, (edit: technically Millington) hookers right down the street at a place I recall as the *Brass Bell*. Everything was brown. BROWN. The walls were brown, the furniture was brown, the curtains were brown, the carpet was brown even the DISHES were brown...except for the putrid GREEN bathroom.
SO. About the dirt poor thing. We were SO poor (how poor were we?). The pipes froze almost every night, so every morning the landlord would come out with a blow dryer to thaw them. We did have a washing machine, but no dryer. I had to braid knitting yarn, that my mom had sent, into a clothes line. I tied one end to the back door knob and the other end to a tree. I had one clothespin and one potato-chip clip. We could not afford diapers for the baby (now 18, and thankfully he doesn't remember any of this) so I cut up bath towels for cloth diapers and had to tie them onto him rather than pin them because we could not afford SAFETY pins. Dish detergent was all purpose...shampoo, laundry detergent, floor cleaner. You name it. Funny thing, though. My ex could always seem to not only afford beer, but his BRAND. The night before we moved out, I refused to wash the dishes and threw them into the trash because I couldn't bear to look at them any longer.
Ahhh yes. That was a lovely time in my life!!!
Ok...this was a brief time in the very distant past, but yes...I was in fact trailer trash once upon a time. There were so many horrible memories I don't know where to begin!
My ex had just joined the Navy and to say that we were dirt poor didn't even begin to cover it. The trailer was OH so lovely, situated in scenic *wrong side of the tracks* in Memphis, (edit: technically Millington) hookers right down the street at a place I recall as the *Brass Bell*. Everything was brown. BROWN. The walls were brown, the furniture was brown, the curtains were brown, the carpet was brown even the DISHES were brown...except for the putrid GREEN bathroom.
SO. About the dirt poor thing. We were SO poor (how poor were we?). The pipes froze almost every night, so every morning the landlord would come out with a blow dryer to thaw them. We did have a washing machine, but no dryer. I had to braid knitting yarn, that my mom had sent, into a clothes line. I tied one end to the back door knob and the other end to a tree. I had one clothespin and one potato-chip clip. We could not afford diapers for the baby (now 18, and thankfully he doesn't remember any of this) so I cut up bath towels for cloth diapers and had to tie them onto him rather than pin them because we could not afford SAFETY pins. Dish detergent was all purpose...shampoo, laundry detergent, floor cleaner. You name it. Funny thing, though. My ex could always seem to not only afford beer, but his BRAND. The night before we moved out, I refused to wash the dishes and threw them into the trash because I couldn't bear to look at them any longer.
Ahhh yes. That was a lovely time in my life!!!
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Hope this helps...
During the late 80's I was living in Texas, working part-time and finishing my undergraduate degree. While I was working for a small law firm as a paralegal, one of the attorneys was appointed by the Court to represent two men. They were accused of breaking and entering and attempted robbery. The two of them went to the bank immediately after work to cash their paychecks. The next stop they made was the "ice house" (the Texas version of a liquor store). After consuming almost a case of beer, each, they decided to go home and watch the ball game. After they got home, the trailer was so hot that they moved the sofa and television out the front door of the trailer to try and get some air. The police found them drunk, half dressed and sprawled out on a sofa that belonged to the people living in the trailer..unfortunately for the two men, their trailer was two rows over.
During the late 80's I was living in Texas, working part-time and finishing my undergraduate degree. While I was working for a small law firm as a paralegal, one of the attorneys was appointed by the Court to represent two men. They were accused of breaking and entering and attempted robbery. The two of them went to the bank immediately after work to cash their paychecks. The next stop they made was the "ice house" (the Texas version of a liquor store). After consuming almost a case of beer, each, they decided to go home and watch the ball game. After they got home, the trailer was so hot that they moved the sofa and television out the front door of the trailer to try and get some air. The police found them drunk, half dressed and sprawled out on a sofa that belonged to the people living in the trailer..unfortunately for the two men, their trailer was two rows over.
- Joined
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- Oklahoma City, OK
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I had another thought...
I grew up in Oklahoma and I remember that most damage done during tornados and thunder storms was to trailer parks.
I grew up in Oklahoma and I remember that most damage done during tornados and thunder storms was to trailer parks.
When my husband and I first got married we bought a decent trailer on 5 acres of nice wooded property but my biggest fear was being "trailer trash".
One day Tim (my husband) came home from work (he's a police officer) and he had spent most of the day with a worker from Child Protective Services checking on some complaints from the school on housing issues. Needless to say one of the houses was filled with cockroaches...the really big kind that live in Texas not the usual little ones we have here in Michigan.
About an hour after he got home, I saw this huge cockroach crawling on the wall in the living room...It had hitched a ride home with Tim, presumably on his uniform somewhere.
I immediately broke down in tears because now I knew I was truly trailer trash and had the cockroaches to prove it! The exterminator came out the next day and sprayed...and every 6 months after that. I never saw another cockroach but for a few hours...I was trailer trash.
One day Tim (my husband) came home from work (he's a police officer) and he had spent most of the day with a worker from Child Protective Services checking on some complaints from the school on housing issues. Needless to say one of the houses was filled with cockroaches...the really big kind that live in Texas not the usual little ones we have here in Michigan.
About an hour after he got home, I saw this huge cockroach crawling on the wall in the living room...It had hitched a ride home with Tim, presumably on his uniform somewhere.
I immediately broke down in tears because now I knew I was truly trailer trash and had the cockroaches to prove it! The exterminator came out the next day and sprayed...and every 6 months after that. I never saw another cockroach but for a few hours...I was trailer trash.
OMG I have seen those types of roaches. EEEW I can imagine your feeling that day! I lived in navy base housing not long after the trailer in memphis thing, and the housing in Virginia beach had those very same gigantic roaches. I wanted to DIE, but instead we moved.
Okay, When I was little we lived in a trailer. It had once been new....Once. Anyhoo, the underpinning wasn't premanent, the thing was still on wheels for Pete's sake. So in the winter some wild dogs tore out all the underpinning and moved in. Well one of them died or something and the stench was unbelievable. My mom wouldn't dream of going under there so we lived with that smell for awhile until a neighbor came and cleaned it up. AT the same time, the dogs had knocked all the heating ducts down and we had no heat and small creatures could crawl in through the holes....NICE.
I never lived in a trailer but I know some that have...Some trailers/doublewides are almost like houses. It's a person's preference and what they can afford...
- Joined
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- Oklahoma City, OK
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- threedogpeople.blogspot.com
I agree with you...
You are completely right, I've seen some that were gorgeous.
There are quite a few of them in Texas. The owners bought land that was so far from cities that the cost of having a builder do a site-built home is astronomical!
The other situation I've seen is that some people buy their land and they can't wait for the builder's schedule to open enough to permit building a site-built home. Lots of people put a trailer on the property and then build a custom home later; many of them then let their children or a ranch manager live in the trailer after the "big house" is finished.
aspiringwriter said:
You are completely right, I've seen some that were gorgeous.
There are quite a few of them in Texas. The owners bought land that was so far from cities that the cost of having a builder do a site-built home is astronomical!
The other situation I've seen is that some people buy their land and they can't wait for the builder's schedule to open enough to permit building a site-built home. Lots of people put a trailer on the property and then build a custom home later; many of them then let their children or a ranch manager live in the trailer after the "big house" is finished.
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