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!!!