Goodbye Trailer

From the time I started school until I started Junior High, we lived in a small three bedroom trailer. It was old and worn out when the folks bought it, and it was small for our family then. The two small bedrooms were about 6x8 in size. The one I slept in had bunk beds that I shared with either Cindy or my sister Becky when she got older.

The odd thing is, as small and uncomfortable as it was, it was the first real home we had. Prior to that we lived in one God-forsaken shack after another. My step-father did migrant work and we would move around to where ever he was working, and stay in whatever hovel was provided. Sometimes they would have screens on the windows, so we didn't have to worry about animals coming in when we opened the windows. Sometimes they didn't.

They didn't always have indoor toilets.

They never had air conditioning.

We seldom had access to a washing machine; I didn't even know what a dryer was. lol

But once they were required to put me in school, my step-father had to look for a steady job. The trailer was first moved onto my grandmothers property and we lived there for a few years. Then the folks bought a piece of someones back yard and moved the trailer there. The backyard we purchased, belong to sweet elderly lady that was put in a retirement home.

When my youngest sister was born, there wasn't even room for a crib in the "master" bedroom; so they put her to bed in a drawer in the dresser. Hey, she fit.

After finding out another child was on the way, they purchased the house that went with the back yard and we moved out of our trailer. It was sold.

I remember sitting out on swing watching as the trailer was made mobile and moved away. I cried. Even though I loved the larger house and rooms. LOVED the fact I could not hear every noise made during the day and night. LOL

It was the only home I'd ever known and it was sad.

Today was a little sad too.

Steve and I sold our travel trailer today. While the RV didn't have years of memories associated with it, selling it was like loosing a bit of ourselves. A bit of our freedom. As times have gotten harder and harder we've had to let go of more and more freedoms.

Boating, riding motorcycles, family vacations, photography, and now camping in our RV.

I know, poor us. I can hear the violins playing in the background as I key in this post. There are many more out there a hell of a lot worse off than we are. And I don't consider our losses final. I still have another 40-60 years (yes, I'm planning on living to be 100) to regain the ability to enjoy those things, to get back some of the freedoms the last five or six years have stripped from us.

But it brought back to mind the last time someone left with a part of me invested in the trailer they were hauling.