It was January of 2003 that I met Jason. He was quite the eccentric fellow and very frugal. He loved old cars, vintage western wear, old things, and loved his 720 square foot 1960s single-wide trailer home! This trailer had to have been the Cadillac of all trailers back in its prime. This baby was decked out with amber stained plastic decorative windows between the living area and the dining room and had a stereo system as well...built right into the wall! The trailer had matching appliances in the kitchen including a cast iron sink in the lovely avocado green and the cabinets were even built to the ceiling...which is quite a hit nowadays! There was a full bay window in the living area making it quite the room with a view and these windows even had actual drapes (window treatments), not your average run-of-the-mill curtains. The bathroom was state of the art containing the washer and dryer along with the stylish vanity with his/her matching avocado sinks. Above the vanity was a full mirror the entire width of the wall that also housed two sliding mirrored medicine cabinets! Talk about high-class! The toilet was also avocado green and lastly the tub/shower combo with a window cut-out...ALSO in the awesome and abundant avocado green!!! Two bedrooms down the short hallway had built-in dressers and closets. The greatest feature was that each and every room was equipped with a speaker intercom system. From 60 feet away or 5 feet away, you could get on the intercom system and summons anyone to whatever room you were in...now that is UPTOWN!!!
For whatever reason, Jason loved his little humble abode. The kids and I grew to love it as well. It was a juggling act at times for all of us to sit around the dinner table, especially with a high chair! Watching tv and hanging out in the living room was also a way-too-cozy treat, but we managed. I think back now and wonder how we did it. 720 square feet of space with 6 human beings milling about. It really didn't bother me much until the tornado that went through rural Girard and Franklin while at the same time another tornado wiped out half of Carl Junction and Stockton. It was then that I realized I did not care to be anywhere near a trailer during any type of storm...let alone a tornado...or two! We were stuck right in the middle of these two twisters with no place to go for shelter. This made me very uneasy, especially with four little kids in tow.
After several conversations about our future together and raising five kids between us, Jason and I decided to get married with plans to build a house for our family. The kids and I moved in and lived in the trailer for about a year. After about six months in, I told Jason that either we get busy and build or I was moving to a rental!! All of our belongings were in storage and I felt like I was living in a shoe box. At times I wanted to pull my hair out or have a freak-out, but I knew there was a light at the end of this crazy tunnel.
We finally decided to sell the trailer so we could build on the existing lot. We got $5,000.00 for that old piece of awesomeness!! LOL We packed our stuff and rented another storage unit and moved in with my parents while our house was being built. It was a year and a half that we lived with my folks...mainly in their basement. Besides having help with the kids, the best part about living with my parents was that my mom cooked supper each night and helped me with the kids!! lol She would give baths, rock whichever kid wanted rocked and read to whoever wanted read to. After being cooped up in that trailer for almost a year, this was heaven.
Did I love being "trailer trash with money"? Kind of! Would I go back to being "trailer trash with money"? That's a big NO WAY! Did I love my new home? Definitely!
Everyone should experience living in a trailer house at least once in their life!
This is an example...Instead of the red, ours was blue.
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