So I'm trying to gel in my head what I mean by Trailer Park.
Today, I looked at three TP related blogs.
Trailer Park Paradise
http://trailerparkparadise.
by Sabra Morse
Trailer Park Refugee
http://daisyfae.wordpress.com/
by the pseudonym'd Daisy Fae
[Editor's note: Personally, I found Daisy Fae funnier than Sabra.]
Yes, dear Editor, Sabra's not as funny in an Entertainment Tonight sorta way (as is Daisy Fae, the middle class/community theater enthusiast with a family chip on her shoulder)... but Sabra's light years more real than DF.
Trailer Park Studios
http://www.trailerparkstudios.
by Pétur Kristján Guðmundsson (and you can believe I copy-pasted that name)
Maybe trailerpark-ism and trailerpark-itis are distinctly different. One (ism) is an state of being that I'm still trying to define. The other (itis) is, well, a condition that involves inflamation. You know, like arthur-itis and appendicitis.
Maybe the way I envision trailerpark-ism is related to a
perspective that's (frankly) more akin to Hippie Dippie Tales than to
Yuppie Drama. After all, an old friend, spurred by my Facebook family
photos, did recently ask if I'm living in a commune.
And it's easy to think that folks who lived and breathed weed during the first and actual Hippie Era would be the ones who hearken to airy fairy flowery viewpoints on life -- but that just ain't the case. Truth is, all those folks (at least, the ones who survived) morphed into Yupsters in the 80's and now tend to write blogs on their coffeebreaks from middle management jobs where they whine about their families of origin...
Anyway, my opinion is that the ones who "get" trailerpark-ism tend to be younger than that -- maybe it's because they watched their ex-hippie parents' lives disintegrate, maybe it's because they were all subjected to a skosh of mind-changing chemicals in their prenatal bloodstreams, or maybe it's because they were raised in a world that wasn't nearly as fresh with promises as the pre-disillusioned Boomers grew up in... I don't know.
But I'm leaning toward a little Kumbaya with people who 'get' that life is full of moveable, changing parts that are perpetually subject to being blown away, engulfed in flames, or sucked up into the sky -- and that no amount of looking backward is gonna anchor your trailer down.
A good place to start may be other blogs that use "trailer park" as a gettin-on spot (sorta like a freeway entrance ramp.)
Bear in mind, please, that I'm chaperoned on these travels by
an Editor who is, in spite of his fondness for me, not quite sure of
two things: (a) what the hell I mean by Trailer Park Karma, and (b)
whether I'm of sound enough mind to determine such a thing in the first
place. (So, when I say, Blame us. It's okay., you should go easy on the hard-working Editor.)Today, I looked at three TP related blogs.
Trailer Park Paradise
http://trailerparkparadise.
by Sabra Morse
Not exactly a mind-meld, but I'm feeling a connection here, Sabra, partly (I think) because of us both being from The Republic. And *I* think you're funny in print, too.
Trailer Park Refugee
http://daisyfae.wordpress.com/
by the pseudonym'd Daisy Fae
OUCH, Daisy Fae. Your take on how to define "trailer park" seems heavily fueled by childhood ghosts. That's cool, we all have them. But I hope you'll consider a different perspective...
Yes, dear Editor, Sabra's not as funny in an Entertainment Tonight sorta way (as is Daisy Fae, the middle class/community theater enthusiast with a family chip on her shoulder)... but Sabra's light years more real than DF.
Trailer Park Studios
http://www.trailerparkstudios.
by Pétur Kristján Guðmundsson (and you can believe I copy-pasted that name)
I'm in love. Not just because I have a thing for board riders on land and sea, but because this is a totally different presentation of the concept. Take THAT, TP deriders. It's not all decrepit hygiene and dollar store aesthetics. Granted these guys aren't even really doing a lifestyle blog so much as just using the space to show off their snowboarding photography and worldly jaunts, but that's the point: "trailer park" doesn't always imply the first thing that comes to most minds.Maybe we're talking about a generational difference. (After all, Daisy Fae is -- as she puts it -- "Just another mid-40’s, midwestern, mid-management woman on a mission." And cranky, too.)
....
Maybe trailerpark-ism and trailerpark-itis are distinctly different. One (ism) is an state of being that I'm still trying to define. The other (itis) is, well, a condition that involves inflamation. You know, like arthur-itis and appendicitis.
Daisy Fae certainly looks at trailerpark as
an -itis. And frankly, I just think that's sad, so I'll not spend a lot
more time nailing that definition to a cross. But kudos to her for
trying to sort out her own "nurture vs nature" in light of how she
judges her inheritance.
And it's easy to think that folks who lived and breathed weed during the first and actual Hippie Era would be the ones who hearken to airy fairy flowery viewpoints on life -- but that just ain't the case. Truth is, all those folks (at least, the ones who survived) morphed into Yupsters in the 80's and now tend to write blogs on their coffeebreaks from middle management jobs where they whine about their families of origin...
Anyway, my opinion is that the ones who "get" trailerpark-ism tend to be younger than that -- maybe it's because they watched their ex-hippie parents' lives disintegrate, maybe it's because they were all subjected to a skosh of mind-changing chemicals in their prenatal bloodstreams, or maybe it's because they were raised in a world that wasn't nearly as fresh with promises as the pre-disillusioned Boomers grew up in... I don't know.
But I'm leaning toward a little Kumbaya with people who 'get' that life is full of moveable, changing parts that are perpetually subject to being blown away, engulfed in flames, or sucked up into the sky -- and that no amount of looking backward is gonna anchor your trailer down.
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