Blast from the Past

While helping Dad go through the contents of his lock box, I came across an old promissory note he had signed for Debbie and me, so we could purchase our very first (used) home in the summer of 1980. Other than the color, the trailer in the pic is not much different than the one we had purchased for the sum of $6,300. Dad gave us the $2,000 down payment (he was and is such a generous person) and we made the $110 payments each month, which was not easy since our combined salaries were around $150 week.

Just one vivid memory of that trailer I can share with you is "the Spring of the Skunks." Yes, a family of skunks had torn through the insulation on the underside of the trailer and had set up house in the duct work. We could hear (and feel) them running up and down the length of the trailer just beneath our feet. Regardless of whether they had sprayed or not, skunks stink 24/7 and the odor was constant. Well, the last straw came when one of the skunks tried coming through the floor in our bedroom which had a hole in the corner covered in duct tape. His paw could be seen reaching through the bedroom floor. So I bought a steel trap and tied one end to the base of the TV antenna next to the trailer; I placed the trap itself under the trailer baited with hamburger meat. It was not long before "SNAP" and "PEEEEWWWW." The skunk was caught; it sprayed; and then ran out from under the trailer trying unsuccessfully to escape into the woods at which point I shot it. This process was repeated SEVEN TIMES before the trailer was skunk-free. Try to imagine how our trailer and everything we owned smelled! The odor permeated everything even my school books stunk. That's right, I would open my book in class and people would ask about the smell.

Ah yes, the good ole days. You can't buy memories like those. But we were happy because we didn't know any better; we just thought life was all about being poor and stinking!

Bird Flu strikes Florida Trailer Park.