Trailers For Sale Or Rent

mobile-018

Three blocks from my subdivision, I can throw a stick in any direction and hit a mobile home. And a chainlink fence. And some curious tire “art” formed into flamingos. And that old man in torn boxer shorts, standing wobbly near his bottle tree (yes, that’s a thing) that keeps his barking doberman company. But that’s not the point. The point is that none of the dozens upon dozens of mobile homes look like this swanky residence.

I want to live in this mobile home. I want that couch and those views of what appears to be a golfcourse (because most mobile homes usually have views of the green), and those curtains, and that record player, and throw in the little girl, please. I don’t have one of those yet.

And while I’ve driven past a whole mess of trailers in my lifetime, apparently my state doesn’t have nearly what the top ten states do.

http://www.bbc.com (yes, the bbc. i know, right?)

Last year’s Miss South Carolina announced her home state with pride: “From the state where 20% of our homes are mobile ’cause that’s how we roll, I’m Brooke Mosteller, Miss South Carolina.” Here, she demonstrates how to prop one up during a thunderstorm.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Come on, you know they are not safe in high winds (and fires, by the way). This is not news. And they depreciate instead of appreciate. But none of this mattered when I was young. Back then, I romanticized mobile home life, like an adult version of a fort. No attic, no basement, no five thousand dollar roof to replace every ten years. Just my size. And heck, you can take it with you when you relocate.

Come to think of it, while every home in my subdivision has .20 acres of land, our mobile home neighbors  down the road all have a sweet acre. Enormous expanses of land on which to put all sorts of things, but mostly immobile vehicles. Next to a mobile home. That is ironic, right? I am not trailer-bashing; this is reality. I have been inside nice mobile homes. But dang–not that nice. Not 1952 nice. I just want to know where those trailers are, like the one above. I never see those. Do they exist?

Well, they sort of exist. Parrish Manor in Raleigh, North Carolina boasts manicured lawns (sans vehicles and tire art) and a nice pine-lined creek. Looks pretty peaceful and clean, huh?

pond-with-nessie

An estimated 20 million Americans live in mobile homes, more than any other country. And they aren’t living in new ones. According to the Manufactured Housing Institute, in the late 1990s, nearly 400,000 new manufactured homes sold a year, down to 55,000 now. This necessitates more upkeep and maintenance on existing homes. Do not neglect your mobile home.

Whether it’s motivated by the freedom and mobility of the American way or simply a cycle of poverty that prevents site-built home ownership, mobile homes are here to stay. Just please–put your shirts back on.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24135022
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24135022

Need more trailer posts? Check out last year’s Teepees and Trailer Homes.

 

32 thoughts on “Trailers For Sale Or Rent”

  1. That is one heck of a post. I agree. I want that trailer. And I will take it all. 86 the peeps; even the girl child (looks like too much maintenance). My second year at IU I lived off campus in a trailer. That winter we had the coldest winter in years in Bloomington. That place was SO cold. How cold was it? It was so cold that the bedroom walls frosted up. And then when I first hit New Mexico I lived in a trailer, out side of town. It was a wee bit isolated. I had a quasi pet coyote. I would feed the begger some left over restaurant food and he would howl to show his appreciation. You are so right trailers are ever so practical. If you tire of the scene just roll on.

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  3. My cousin lived in a mobile home in the sixties. It had a radio inside a wall that lit up, bunk beds, and built in furniture. I’m still jealous. They moved all over following her daddy’s job! No fair! Wah!!!!! They also got to play in the street and never got run over!

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      1. She did once, but rode around in the back seat with the window down and it “blew out.” Tried it but didn’t work for me. Her daddy did shoot right over her boyfriend’s foot just before prom and cost her a prom date. That did make me feel better.(They lived in the mobile home then with a living room built on.)

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      3. Oh no. He was just cleaning his gun in the next room. Could have happened to anybody. Boyfriend just wasn’t very understanding. Cathy was caught less than 24 hours before prom without date, and you know, in South, proper sequence is prom, graduation, wedding, baby……or sometimes baby can make all those events. Boy was her mama mad!!!!! Maybe I should blog this story. Hadn’t thought about it in a while.

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      4. He should have been understanding, considering lots of daddies clean their guns. My husband was cleaning his gun (which he’d been doing for about 25 yrs) when we were engaged several years ago and it went off and blew a hole through his hand and thank God it somehow missed the important stuff, but it was a hot purple red mess of flesh, and I had to leave work the next morning, telling my boss my fiancee had blown his hand plum off. Now it just cracks in the scars in his palm and gets dry and you wouldn’t dare let him touch you because the way his skin sounds on my shirt is like the static in an a.m. radio. Now you got me telling stories…

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      6. I’m from Texas, so it’s not the official south, but there are certainly a whole mess of sayings that get passed down. I don’t have a meemaw, but my son gets to see his meemaw tomorrow for lunch LOL.

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      11. Well, just let her know I got stood up three hours before Prom by a gay guy whose new boyfriend last-minute told him he could not go because I might somehow turn him back straight. ???? All I wanted to do was dance!

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  4. Mobile homes are not as prevelant here in Canada because of the cold weather. But I have seen the whole towns of them while travelling in the States. They have a bad rep here as not very sturdy. If you look at the list you provided, the vast majority are below the Mason – Dixon line : much warmer.

    Cool post Kerbey.

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    1. Oh, yes–I noticed they are mostly in the south. It is so hot here that many of them, including the one I can almost see from my sidewalk, has aluminum foil covering its windows to reflect the sun. The fact that they have no foundation means all of the air (freezing or burning) collects under their floors and can make it quite miserable. Canada must just look cleaner overall.

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      1. I suppose it does look cleaner, but there are only 1/10 as many of us, so that’s to be expected. I hadn’t really thought about it. Again because of the weather, homes have to be closed up and relatively intact for the residents to survive the winter. There are still some low income areas that are not pretty but they are smaller. Our gov’t does supply housing and/or food for those who need it – again because the weather would kill them without it.

        I think it may be tidier because of need not for any other reason.

        Good point Kerbey.

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  5. Most mobile homes, in my opinion, are put in one spot, near a whole batch of other mobile homes, and hence they can put dozens, hundreds even under the umbrella of the fancier name of a Trailer Park. Up here near Syracuse there is actually one somebody had the gumption to name Green Acres.

    I also get the feeling from looking at the mobile homes of our time that they’re not really mobile anymore. Sure, they’re still called trailers, too, but I think the only time they’re hitched to any sort of vehicle and pulled around is when they go from the manufacturer to the Trailer Park.

    Some of the Trailer Parks get really seedy looking while others are kept up rather nicely. There’s a nasty looking one nearby that I call the Hurtin’ Units when I’m feeling uncharitable. Like the ones near you, Kerbey, parked wreckers, dangling storm windows, rust-bucket siding, junkyard dogs for protection, feral rats the size of cats sitting on the laps of grandpas with three yellow teeth in stained spaghetti-strapped t-shirts … I know, not cool.

    This is a great subject, Kerbey. As your chart shows, down south, people retire to mobile homes, keep them up nice, and pray for no natural disasters.

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    1. All of those colorful phrases are true. And SO MANY PIT BULLS. I can’t take walks that way because of the stray dogs, but the growling pit bulls on chains scare the pee out of me. If we retire to Florida, I think we will forego the mobile homes, you and I. I’d be scared during the umpteen tornadoes.

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  6. yes, shirt back on please to the gentleman in the last picture. I’m with you in loving the first picture. Though you can have the little girl. Already have two of those. This is the most I’ve ever learned about mobile homes. Thanks for that 🙂

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