I spent the first twelve years of my life in a double wide. I never questioned it. It was my house. It was the same as all the other houses in the neighborhood…so, yes, we lived in a trailer park. It was a nicer trailer park, as trailer parks go, with larger than average lots; many of us had put additions on—porches and such—but frankly it was still a trailer park, cheerily named “Sunkist Acres” by developers in the late 1960’s.

It took me a while to figure out that there were some people who looked down on trailer parks. It’s when I first heard the term “trailer trash.” Huh? I was confused.

Later, I found out that it wasn’t the trailer parks themselves that people were looking down on, but the incomes and status of the folks who lived in them. Stereotypes abounded.

All of us are born somewhere. All of us call a place home. Every place has its limitations, but no place need define us. [Read more…]