I helped my father build the Mobile Home Park he built from scratch (I was forced to) and because of that I rejected it all my life. I was never ashamed of growing up in a Trailer Park; proud really, when many would say Trailer Trash; like it's a bad thing? Before age 12, my childhood was idyllic, at least to me, and I remember the trailer park and the land it was on with fondness.
I think my sister suggested we run it with my father at one point when he became sick but the idea was repulsive to me and even after he'd passed and I was peaceful with the place, feeling no pressure from him to take it over, nor from my own guilt, it did not seem like a good idea.
My new husband thought we should run it from the very beginning and we had several discussions about it over the three years my sister and I tried to sell it, all ending in my cool flat NO.
I think it was the waterfront property that caused the idea of living in my hometown area again to seep into my consciousness. As we cleaned it up, it became sweeter and sweeter to be there. Since I was right there, I began to right wrongs and take responsibility for things in the trailer park at the same time that we received a very low offer. Since my offer only had to be half of that for the business, an attraction to the idea began to swell.
I also had had for the previous three years developed an obsession for all things vintage and vintage trailers especially. Hubby and I had met quite a community of other Airstream enthusiasts when we bought our SafariSS to get married in Nova Scotia and I started the hunt for a small trailer I could hitch and travel in for "Girls weekends" Therein I discovered the GlamperGirl society and a whole bevy of wonderful, like-minded women on Facebook who were collecting antiques, retro, vintage and CAMPERS and Glamping them up!!
These two groundswells merged and became my new Dream, the goals came quick and fast and kept me up at night entering ideas into the NOTES section of my Iphone.
After just a month of trying on the hat of Trailer Park owner/manager and after an exhausting, frustrating battle with a tenant who got a building permit to put on a roof....which was really a second story...8 foot into the air ROOF?! I realized the folly of someone who knew my father's struggles to take back his land, an emotional nature and the fight in her of a junkyard dog....to run THIS PARTICULAR trailer park.
I did, however, keep the lot on the Bay and we have cleared, fenced and delivered our 31 foot 1974 Excella there to test the waters, as it were, with the neighbours.
Soon, we hope the '04 Safari and the '64 Glendale Li'l Vintage Trailer will join her as my personal nod to my father and his trailer park...without the angst!
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