# Trailer Park Stereotypes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 9, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303 "2014-03-09T22:34:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/21 "2014-03-11T12:46:37Z")
> [@Knuffle](#): > > I used to live in a trailer park when I was younger. And then I grew up and married a black guy. Now we live in a 3000 square foot house in the suburbs. I wonder what that means. Double-wide? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/22 "2014-03-11T14:05:58Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > Double-wide? Triple. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/23 "2014-03-11T14:16:47Z")
> [@sandysue44](#): > > I unfortunately live in a trailer park in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The stereotype of white trash losers is all too accurate. Yes, there are honest working class people of limited means but many are those who are alcoholics, drug abusers and those of generational poverty. The wardrobe of many women is skin tight shorts and tank tops with large bellies that hang over. There are “tribes” that hang out on the porch with children being raised by grandmothers and single parents. There are Mexicans and many mixed race relationships resulting in many welfare households. A large percentage of the residents, including men are on disability and do not work. I am trying to get out of here. I consider it a very depressing boulevard of broken dreams.☹ I’ve been all across the US and it’s the same all over. “Trailer” just isn’t a house, it’s a universal dialect. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/24 "2014-03-11T19:26:41Z")
I have lived in a mobile-home park in Gardena, CA, for almost 27 years now. I like it very much. We have none of the squalor or crime the OP bemoans–although one benighted resident fired on cops and 22 cop cars came in here lickety-split after him! He was DOA at the hospital! We do have a serious problem with aged residents who have health problems–you name it. The tenants are quite integrated, with whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Filipinos, Britishers, etc., etc. The mobile homes range from the obviously ancient to nearly brand-new, and the occasionally remarkably renovated. Drop by Garden West Estates on Western Avenue, a half-block south of Artesia Boulevard, in Gardena, and you’ll see that the stereotype is often a figment of someone’s overactive imagination. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/25 "2014-03-11T20:01:57Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > My whole life I’ve wanted to live in trailer. It’s something about their size and simplicity that makes me romanticize them, I guess. > > But I don’t want to live in a trailer park. In the area where I grew up (at least the more “rural” part), all yards were at least 1 acre, including 99% of the trailers. So almost no one in a trailer lived in a park. They were mostly on 1+ acre lots. It was fairly common for someone in a trailer to upgrade and have a “stick built” house constructed on their property while living in the trailer or have “Nanticoke Home” brought in. Also, quite a few people lived in trailers on the beach (and some found themselves with half-million dollar+ homes). If you really want a trailer, you can always get one on a regular private lot. Or get a “tiny home.” ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/26 "2014-03-11T20:21:33Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > [Trailer Park Boys](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290988/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5) is one of my favorite series. Bubbles is hilarious. I read someplace they actually had trouble finding trailer parks to film in because the residents objected to all the profanity and chaos. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s the funniest show that’s ever been on TV, but gotta to remember it’s humor. The county I live in didn’t have zoning in rural areas until the 1970s, and it wasn’t really enforced until the early 1990s. There are trailers on 1/2 acre lots, right next to $500,000 McMansions on 20 acres. Some of the trailer people live up to the very worst of the stereotypes; others are quiet, retired couples on very limited fixed incomes who take care of their property and trailers and have nice gardens. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/27 "2014-03-11T21:30:35Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > My whole life I’ve wanted to live in trailer. It’s something about their size and simplicity that makes me romanticize them, I guess. > > But I don’t want to live in a trailer park. > [@kayaker](#): > > Rain/hailstorms are a bitch. You’re never warm in winter, nor cool in summer. High winds make you nervous. > > (Lived in a mobile home for a year) Like **kayaker** says, you really don’t want to live in a trailer, it sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/28 "2014-03-11T22:05:59Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Like **kayaker** says, you really don’t want to live in a trailer, it sucks. I think to some extent it depends on the quality. My in-laws live in a “modular” that’s really two mid-1980s vintage double-wides bolted together, set on a foundation. It’s in rural South Dakota. I’ve been in it during the worst blizzards I’ve ever seen, and in the summer when it’s 105 outside. It’s no better or worse than my house. The tornado I was there for was scary, however. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/29 "2014-03-11T22:36:34Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I have lived in a mobile-home park in Gardena, CA, for almost 27 years now. I like it very much. We have none of the squalor or crime the OP bemoans–although one benighted resident fired on cops and 22 cop cars came in here lickety-split after him! He was DOA at the hospital! We do have a serious problem with aged residents who have health problems–you name it. The tenants are quite integrated, with whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Filipinos, Britishers, etc., etc. The mobile homes range from the obviously ancient to nearly brand-new, and the occasionally remarkably renovated. > Drop by Garden West Estates on Western Avenue, a half-block south of Artesia Boulevard, in Gardena, and you’ll see that the stereotype is often a figment of someone’s overactive imagination. 🙂 Good friends of mine lived in a trailer park for about ten years, it was in a rural setting so…surrounded by farmland, woods, and a state park about two miles away. And in Michigan, which doesn’t have much in the way of trailer-eating tornadoes. They’ve since bought a stick-built home with acreage and a garage/pole barn but I have to say, their double-wide in a trailer park was pretty nice! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/30 "2014-03-11T22:54:53Z")
I lived in a trailer park once. My neighbor took pity on me, a California girl newly married to a North Carolinian, and taught me to cook southern style. My first lesson: Cole slaw: cabbage and mayo. LOTS of mayo. Boiled potatoes: potatoes, water, and ketchup. LOTS of ketchup. Catfish: breaded in cornmeal and deep fried. Hush puppies: cornmeal, sugar and salt, deep fried. She was a really nice lady from rural North Carolina. Her husband’s name was Obie. Standing in the kitchen of that 35’ trailer and hearing her shout “OBIEEEEEEEE! Obie Naish Burns! You get yor tail back in this trailer NAOW do I’ll whup yo ass!” was a real experience. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/31 "2014-03-11T23:31:58Z")
> [@DrumBum](#): > > Unrelated, but are tornado’s a problem in Virginia Beach ? Not really. Hurricanes, occasionally. All that aside, Virginia Beach IS kind of depressing. Just for being a shithole nowheresville, not specifically because of the trailer parks. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303/32 "2014-03-12T00:08:47Z")
OP, there are plenty of people who OWN their homes who much worse than any trailer park denizen. I know because live very near two of them. It’s the person and who they are on the inside, not where they live. If I were to move to a place where the housing was expensive (say Florida or Hawaii) I would have no problems buying a far less expensive trailer or manufactured home and living in a park there. Why spend a fortune on a home when they make trailers and Manufactured homes with all of the same amenities? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailer-park-stereotypes/683303.md?page=1)