Redneck diaries: I have never lived in a trailer / mobile home

One of the stigmas surrounding redneckdom is that we really want to live in modular homes aka, trailers. I will admit that a vast majority of people who do end up living in trailer parks are in fact rednecks at least in North Carolina anyway, but something to note about the redneck community is that we have a bit of an inner hierarchy, and my segment of the redneck community doesn't really interact with that one very much.

I have never lived in a trailer, never considered living in trailer, and unless it has wheels on it and is called an RV, I never will live in a trailer.

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One of the major reasons why I never lived in one of these things is because of the fact that the college town that I attended, if you did live in a trailer park you were going to be really far away from the actual university. I commuted to school from my parent's house for the first year or so, and then got an apartment with some friend that was within walking distance for the next several years.

Another reason that I didn't live in a trailer park was because I was very dedicated to avoiding the stereotype that a lot of people have about "my people." Rednecks don't necessarily WANT to live in a trailer, but a lot of them just end up there somehow. Trailers tend to be extremely cheap to rent and especially in today's housing market it is one of the only affordable ways to own land, even if it is just a small rectangle that is barely larger than your trailer is. Despite all that, I would rather rent until the end of time than own a trailer.

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Unlike typical homes, trailers tend to diminish in value over time and the land itself is never going to increase dramatically either because well, it's a trailer park, and nobody really wants to live in a trailer park, do they? I think most sensible people buy a house or land as some sort of an investment and why would anyone buy a house knowing that in all likelihood it is going to be worth less than you paid for it when you sell it?

There are some folks out there that buy a lot of land, which I think is important and I have a bit of it and they will put a "double-wide" on it. Pretend all that you want but this is just two trailers that are patched together to try to create the illusion of it not being a trailer.

It's a trailer, everyone knows it is a trailer, the people who assess the value of your house know it is a trailer too.

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Maybe I am just some sort of high-falootin redneck but I would just feel bad about my life if I moved into one of these things and when I visit people that live in them I kind of feel sorry for them. No matter how much you gussy it up you are still living in something that is on blocks and was moved there on a truck, it wasn't built there. Also, these things tend to be made out of very cheap materials that don't really withstand the test of time. They will always be rectangles as well.

None of my family members live in trailers or ever have and a vast majority of the country boys that I see on a regular basis haven't either. I'm not trying to come down on anyone that does live like this and if you do like living like that then I say "good for you." I just don't see the point of buying a house and land that is almost certainly going to go down in value. It doesn't make sense to me.

For most modern day cosmopolitan rednecks like myself, the idea of a good place to live is a simple house that is surrounded by plenty of land. We dislike subdivision housing just as much as trailers. We want our own unique piece of land with a house on it. How old said house is doesn't really matter that much to us. We'll park a travelin' trailer next to it, but that is about the extent of the average redneck's involvement with trailers extends.