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Terms Which Have Disappeared

EliasRDA

One of the Regulars
Messages
193
Location
Oceanic Peninsula (DelMarVa) USA
To kind of steer this back on topic, "trailer park" is a phrase the "manufactured housing" industry would gladly see go extinct.

I'd welcome more trailer parks, for reasons enumerated above. Real trailer parks, with real trailers (and motorhomes, etc.).

Around here my association is trying to remove the word "Mobile Home", they want to fancy it all up & call them "Manufactured Home", right peeves them off I will not call them manufactures, I call them mobiles.
Even when they correct me, I look them dead in the eye, get my dog-face (war-face) on & say very firmly "Mobile Home". Most know me well enough to back off, those that don't learn soon enough when I tell them that DE DMV considers them Mobiles & issues a car title for them & that if they are converted to a Class C mobile the DMV will rescind the title & issue them paperwork to become "deeded" just like a home.

And I irritate them when I call myself a Real-La-Tor, they try to correct me & say "Its Real-Tor". That just gets them a glare, the dirtiest looks I can muster & depending on how well I know them either a "shut up" or a "so what, whatever". I'm trying to do the more gentlemanly thing about it lately & just ignore them, to not acknowledge the rudeness of their response, but its hard. 30+ yrs of responding to rudeness is a hard battle to fight. But I am trying. And yes, I am a Realtor aka real estate agent or I guess the brits call them land agents. :p

I love mobiles, to an extent, my moms sister lived in a mobile home park in Southeast CT when I was growing up, but those were actual mobiles, tow behind style, in the early 70's. And her park sure wasn't full of todays white trash types either, they all were hard working living in what they could afford homes, hoping one day to have a stick build house instead of a mobile.
Not my aunt, her & her husband used to travel from the family homestead in CT to TN, if I remember right they did it from the 70's till she passed in 90's & he passed in the early 00's.

I would live in a tow behind or RV if I could, but in between travelling when it was stored at the house I'd have issues, we live in the woods with fields next to us so we have problems with mice & snakes. I can deal with salamanders, frogs, even the mice but I hate snakes with a passion so I'd end up shooting up my trailer trying to kill the snakes. :eusa_doh:
 
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LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,755
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I know a lot of people who live in trailers, have lived in trailers, or have relatives living in trailers -- among them my sister and her family -- and I've never heard a single one of them call them "mobile homes." The only people around here who call them that are the people who sell them. People who actually live in them say they live in a "single wide" or a "double wide," and the lot where they're kept is and will always be a "trailer park."
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,755
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
At least in New Orleans there are some very good musicians. Of course, there are bad ones too.

We had a New Orleans-based band called "Tuba Skinny" out here on the sidewalk in front of the theatre one afternoon the summer before last, playing traditional washboard-jugband twenties/thirties style jazz, and they were so good I wanted to close the place up for the night and just listen to them. They were busking to promote an upcoming appearance at one of the bars but I begged the person who does our booking to try and get them on our stage. So far it hasn't happened, but I keep tossing their name into the conversation. Not all who busk are bums.
 

EliasRDA

One of the Regulars
Messages
193
Location
Oceanic Peninsula (DelMarVa) USA
That's the difference nowadays between the northern & the mid atlantic areas Liz, not that its wrong in any way but I haave been approached by many from PA, DC, B-More & such who do call them mobiles as the parks here are mobile parks even though the trailers in them are very far from being mobile.
Our DMV calls them mobiles also, but they are not classed with the tow behinds & RVs.

And I try explaining to those in our association (I sit as a 3 yr member on our MLS aka multi listing service committee) they are not manufactured housing, they are far from it. But since we lost one of the biggest mobile makers here quite a few yrs ago around the time of the housing bust (06 or 07 or so) & more manufacturers have moved in, I do it more to just "irritate" them.

Bad of me? Not really, they usually are referring to a mobile, a lot of the listings under our mobiles are over 15 yrs old & sell for less than $50 thou on rented land, which is a whole another story.

So I do know the difference, & its considered being a snobby type if you call your mobile a single or double wide here, but then again many owners here don't care as its a cheap 2nd home for them to use in the summertime to get "away from the city" (snort) & "be at the _Beach_". Otherwise they rent them out the rest of the time, same as our condos & townhouses. Its why many of the owners went underwater or into short sale/foreclosures a few yrs ago.

Some days I'd love to live in a tow behind, able to pick up & travel as I want, spend a few days say in the mountains of Vermont, move down to buzzard bay, then back to CT, over to the blue ridge & go see the remains of the Grand Old Opry, down to GA, then work my way out west stopping short of SF & avoiding Colorado. LOL ;)
 
Messages
13,672
Location
down south
I know a lot of people who live in trailers, have lived in trailers, or have relatives living in trailers -- among them my sister and her family -- and I've never heard a single one of them call them "mobile homes." The only people around here who call them that are the people who sell them. People who actually live in them say they live in a "single wide" or a "double wide," and the lot where they're kept is and will always be a "trailer park."
I as well have many friends and relatives who live or have lived in trailers. Ain't no shame in it. They are very prevalent in AL, both in parks and tucked back in the woods.
In fact, many of the local dining establishments around here offer on their menu a double wide salad as a service to their patrons who cannot afford the house salad.
 
Messages
13,672
Location
down south
'Trailer house' is the de facto term down here as well.
If I ever hear someone say 'mobile home' I know they aren't from around here, and if I ever hear the term 'manufactured housing' I know they're a salesman.
 
We had a New Orleans-based band called "Tuba Skinny" out here on the sidewalk in front of the theatre one afternoon the summer before last, playing traditional washboard-jugband twenties/thirties style jazz, and they were so good I wanted to close the place up for the night and just listen to them. They were busking to promote an upcoming appearance at one of the bars but I begged the person who does our booking to try and get them on our stage. So far it hasn't happened, but I keep tossing their name into the conversation. Not all who busk are bums.

I've seen them before, and they are good. There is stuff like that everywhere in NO.

Many successful musicians and bands started out busking, and many remain committed to the practice (sometimes in disguise), long after they sell out concerts, both out of nostalgia and as an art form unto itself. I heard one famous artist talk about it saying it's one thing to get people to listen when they've paid money to see your show. It's another to get them to stop and listen when they're on their way to do something else. The latter is when you really find out how good your song is.
 

skydog757

A-List Customer
Messages
465
Location
Thumb Area, Michigan
We even have them here -- nearly all of them skinny twenty-year-olds who give you reason to regret the ongoing ukulele craze.

Funny you should mention that; my wife and I recently visited Pittsburgh and I saw a young lady strumming away on a ukulele in the Strip area. As we moved around to different streets, shops and restaurants I saw her working various areas but it sounded like she was playing the same song every time.
 

vitanola

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
Funny you should mention that; my wife and I recently visited Pittsburgh and I saw a young lady strumming away on a ukulele in the Strip area. As we moved around to different streets, shops and restaurants I saw her working various areas but it sounded like she was playing the same song every time.

Probably too skinny. not at all like Lena, who "only knows one song, she plays it all day long. sometimes she plays it wrong, but how they love it, want more of it..."
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
There's an important lesson there. If you have a limited repertoire, make sure you change audiences often.

During Chuck Berry's first tour, he had two songs, Maybellene and Wee Wee Hours. Shows you how far you can go with such a limited start! [video=youtube;cO5FeW5TQ_o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5FeW5TQ_o[/video]
 
Messages
15,259
Location
Arlington, Virginia
The expression "Dag burn it". My father used this all the time when we were growing up, in lieu of curse words. He told us it was something his maternal grandfather taught him to say when he was mad or agitated.
 

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