I miss my trailer

There's a line in the great Jimmy Buffett song, "Son of a Son of Sailor," that goes "I'm glad I don't live in a trailer."
I used to sing that song with great gusto, until I actually lived in a trailer.
It has now been over five years since I lived in said trailer, and I actually miss it. Like a lot.
I feel like, somehow, I got off track, that it was my gateway to permaculture, the rat race sucked me out of it, and I need to get back.
Are there any other trailer park permaculturists, or ex-trailer park permaculturists out there?

I guess it depends on what you call a trailer! We live in a double-wide manufactured home--it came with the 5 acres we bought. For almost a year, my Dad kept calling our house a trailer.

Our house is small (950sqft) and we're currently remodeling the attached garage into a family room.

Part of me wishes I had a bigger house. Part of me wishes I had a pretty Tudor-style or Victorian house, or a house I build out of all natural materials. But, I've come to the realization that I would not want to spend the amount of money (or sacrifice a lot of things in my life to earn that amount of money) to have a nicer house. Even if someone gave me $500,000, I don't think I'd build a fancier house. I'd probably pay off the one I have and invest the money for my kids/retirement, buy a few crafting supplies, maybe build a cellar, and fix up our cars.

Sometimes, having a nice house is worth is, and sometimes we look at all our priorities and think, "Do I really want to spend so much time/money on a nice house, or would I rather live in a small house and use that time/money in other ways?"

I hear you on all of the above. I think the entire 123-trailer park might fit into 3 acres ... it still is a nice little community. None of the mini-homes have wheels, but my parents, and everybody else, called them trailers. Even the annoying experiences are now bathed in the light of nostalgia and the myth of the golden age.

Hi Anna,
I lived in a double wide trailer for 9 years. While I don't miss the trailer itself because it was cheaply made... I do miss that time in my life. It was a good time, growing the family and growing a garden. It was not a trailer park, so I can't speak to the community aspect, but we did have good neighbors.

I have never lived in a trailer or a trailer park, but I have camped and motor-homed:
1. Community is important and we need to work on making our neighbourhoods more "community-minded", but that takes time, effort, and ingenuity.
2. My biggest complaint about most of the trailer parks I've visited is that there isn't any land to garden. It would help with so many things if we had more of a model like the Brit's do of "allotment gardens".
3. Nostalgia is a real thing. It usually pulls out the best parts. Our motor home had no spot by the door to put wet boots. Or a decent bar over the small "bath" to hang drippy things after carrying them that far.
4. Regardless of item 3, living smaller has great appeal. Most of us don't need half of what we own most of the time. I wish tool-lending libraries were a thing. I wish community centers offered use of a canning kitchen for those few times I *really* need a bigger space to work, without charging more than the canned goods are worth.

I hope you keep finding ways to take the best bits of trailer living and trying to reinvent them in the situation you're now in. Be creative! Think outside the box trailer.

I've never lived in a trailer park, but when I was a young teen, my dad took 2 ancient single-wide trailers, set them up side by side, and cut a hole through the touching walls, to make a home for a family of 8, on the 17acre farm he'd bought (the original house and barn had been leveled in a fire, about 50yrs prior, and the entire property abandoned). I lived there for 3yrs, and my real appreciation developed as I came to fully understand how his ingenuity allowed us to live rather well, on next to no income.

Then, as an adult, I lived in an old, barely-holding-together, rental, dumpy single-wide for 8 months, while looking for a place of our own, to buy - which ended up being 3acres that we moved a new, demo-model double-wide onto. It wasn't in a trailer park, but about half the homes on that road were trailers, of some size & age, or another. That community was mostly great, and having my own home for the first time was liberating. I planted trees, had a sad, little garden (it was on a rocky ridge in KY), some guineas and a mean, little, banty rooster. But, I also have horrible, nightmare-level memories from there, so no, I don't miss it.

They (both the parks & trailers) serve an important purpose, and have served many, very well - I definitely think they *can be* a better option for many, than living in an apartment - but, I wouldn't trade my house for one.

You folks all get it. Bless your hearts for sharing. Happy Mother's Day!