Can you imagine being a kid and not being able to ride your bike at all... ever?
As I have mentioned before, we live in a single wide mobile home in a trailer park. Sometimes that really is as redneck as it sounds. In fact the park we used to live in could have been the one they used for Toby Keith's video Trailerhood.
((If you can't get the video to play, go watch it on YouTube y'all!)) Seriously, it looks redneck and all, but it's awesome to be a part of that kind of community.
Well, I have to admit I really miss the old neighborhood. It was more comfortable. We'd been there 15 years by the time we moved, and we knew just about everyone. My kids all had friends all over the place, and I didn't feel any fear in letting them just take off on a warm day and ride their bikes from our cul-de-sac to another within the park (it was a HUGE park) and play with their friends, climb trees, splash in the wading pools, squirt gun fights, and just plain having a good childhood... We even lived right up the hill from the gas station so the kids could all go down there with a couple of dollars and get an ice cream or candy. It was a big adventure for them. Well the home we were in there was only 2 bedrooms and while we owned it outright, it was falling apart and we had to just give it to the park since I couldn't even give it away... and we bought this place which is HUGE and I love it. And I thought it would be great since I didn't have any back-door neighbors, and the kids did know some other kids here...
Well, we've been here two years now and I wish more than anything that we could be back in the old park - but it's not happening - we kind of burned that bridge with the current manager/owners. The manager is a real jerk anyway - but I can see his side, back then we were slobs and were so bad with money, the rent was always late, and it was just $110 a freaking month! Crazy! I could have practically paid a year at a time if I could have gotten my act together.
This park really only has one main street that circles through it, and though we're in the far back corner and don't get nearly as much traffic driving by, they've decided to instate a new rule... kids are no longer allowed to ride bikes AT ALL EVER inside the park. With the way ours is situated, there's kind of a circle area with the parking spaces that's not in the main road, and Zoe was out riding her bike around in a circle (which is sad in itself, but anyway) the %#$%^ cop who happens to live in the park and has agreed to be the landlords' watchdog drove up here totally out of his way as he doesn't even live on this side, and YELLED at my daughter and asked her why she couldn't understand a simple rule to not ride her damn bike! Unfortunately (or fortunately) I wasn't outside when it happened and heard about it later... or I may have ended up arrested. I'd have gone off on that ^^%$%#$ for yelling at and making my child cry. We pay a crap ton for this lot and they need to just leave us the heck alone. The landlords never even COME HERE. I'm sure some ^%%$# called and complained that a kid on a bike scratched his precious brand new car and he was going to sue the park or something stupid. I am SO P***ed!
Unfortunately, even if we do get out of debt this year and can afford to somehow make DOUBLE house payments, we still won't have it paid off for 3 years, and we cannot move the trailer til it's paid off... and even then it costs and arm and a leg to move one - PLUS we have to have somewhere to move it. We need to buy a piece of land and have it made ready for a mobile home. By then... they'll either all be moved out or too old to care about riding bikes.
This really only affects Zoe. The 3 older ones had most of their childhood in the old park and I'm sure have wonderful memories of it, but poor Zoe came along later and she's only 8 years old and has been here since she was 6. She won't have those memories. She'll just remember having a bike she can't ride.
Actually Rhiannon got a nice fancy touring bike for her birthday last year and hasn't been on it in forever. She wanted it to ride to her friends' house in the old park which is across the railroad tracks and a 4-lane road... but she just never goes now mainly she says because she'd have to walk the bike out of the park to the main street and then get on it. It's ridiculous! There are bike laws in this town, and I think it's seriously unfair that they can just make up new ones simply because they own the land the trailers sit on. Also, one of her friends moved to Indiana along with her brother and their folks who were the maintenance people. The neighborhood teens all used to go hang out at their house. That's all part of the past now...
So, with pretty much nothing to do outside (no place to play really unlike the wide open spaces in the old park), no trees to climb, no wading pools allowed either, and the kids here are all kind of mean or just can't speak English... my kids just stay inside on nice days and play video games.
I'm REALLY hoping my oldest daughter can rent a trailer in the old park and we can store Zoe's bikes at her place and then let our kids go ride bikes there and make friends with those kids again. Maybe it'll entice Rhiannon to even ride her bike over there more often.
Ok, just had to rant about this, especially on such a gorgeous spring day when my kids are all inside watching Criminal Minds of all things. Hope y'all are having a great day and your weather and neighborhood allow you to enjoy it!
As I have mentioned before, we live in a single wide mobile home in a trailer park. Sometimes that really is as redneck as it sounds. In fact the park we used to live in could have been the one they used for Toby Keith's video Trailerhood.
((If you can't get the video to play, go watch it on YouTube y'all!)) Seriously, it looks redneck and all, but it's awesome to be a part of that kind of community.
Well, I have to admit I really miss the old neighborhood. It was more comfortable. We'd been there 15 years by the time we moved, and we knew just about everyone. My kids all had friends all over the place, and I didn't feel any fear in letting them just take off on a warm day and ride their bikes from our cul-de-sac to another within the park (it was a HUGE park) and play with their friends, climb trees, splash in the wading pools, squirt gun fights, and just plain having a good childhood... We even lived right up the hill from the gas station so the kids could all go down there with a couple of dollars and get an ice cream or candy. It was a big adventure for them. Well the home we were in there was only 2 bedrooms and while we owned it outright, it was falling apart and we had to just give it to the park since I couldn't even give it away... and we bought this place which is HUGE and I love it. And I thought it would be great since I didn't have any back-door neighbors, and the kids did know some other kids here...
Well, we've been here two years now and I wish more than anything that we could be back in the old park - but it's not happening - we kind of burned that bridge with the current manager/owners. The manager is a real jerk anyway - but I can see his side, back then we were slobs and were so bad with money, the rent was always late, and it was just $110 a freaking month! Crazy! I could have practically paid a year at a time if I could have gotten my act together.
This park really only has one main street that circles through it, and though we're in the far back corner and don't get nearly as much traffic driving by, they've decided to instate a new rule... kids are no longer allowed to ride bikes AT ALL EVER inside the park. With the way ours is situated, there's kind of a circle area with the parking spaces that's not in the main road, and Zoe was out riding her bike around in a circle (which is sad in itself, but anyway) the %#$%^ cop who happens to live in the park and has agreed to be the landlords' watchdog drove up here totally out of his way as he doesn't even live on this side, and YELLED at my daughter and asked her why she couldn't understand a simple rule to not ride her damn bike! Unfortunately (or fortunately) I wasn't outside when it happened and heard about it later... or I may have ended up arrested. I'd have gone off on that ^^%$%#$ for yelling at and making my child cry. We pay a crap ton for this lot and they need to just leave us the heck alone. The landlords never even COME HERE. I'm sure some ^%%$# called and complained that a kid on a bike scratched his precious brand new car and he was going to sue the park or something stupid. I am SO P***ed!
Unfortunately, even if we do get out of debt this year and can afford to somehow make DOUBLE house payments, we still won't have it paid off for 3 years, and we cannot move the trailer til it's paid off... and even then it costs and arm and a leg to move one - PLUS we have to have somewhere to move it. We need to buy a piece of land and have it made ready for a mobile home. By then... they'll either all be moved out or too old to care about riding bikes.
This really only affects Zoe. The 3 older ones had most of their childhood in the old park and I'm sure have wonderful memories of it, but poor Zoe came along later and she's only 8 years old and has been here since she was 6. She won't have those memories. She'll just remember having a bike she can't ride.
Actually Rhiannon got a nice fancy touring bike for her birthday last year and hasn't been on it in forever. She wanted it to ride to her friends' house in the old park which is across the railroad tracks and a 4-lane road... but she just never goes now mainly she says because she'd have to walk the bike out of the park to the main street and then get on it. It's ridiculous! There are bike laws in this town, and I think it's seriously unfair that they can just make up new ones simply because they own the land the trailers sit on. Also, one of her friends moved to Indiana along with her brother and their folks who were the maintenance people. The neighborhood teens all used to go hang out at their house. That's all part of the past now...
So, with pretty much nothing to do outside (no place to play really unlike the wide open spaces in the old park), no trees to climb, no wading pools allowed either, and the kids here are all kind of mean or just can't speak English... my kids just stay inside on nice days and play video games.
I'm REALLY hoping my oldest daughter can rent a trailer in the old park and we can store Zoe's bikes at her place and then let our kids go ride bikes there and make friends with those kids again. Maybe it'll entice Rhiannon to even ride her bike over there more often.
Ok, just had to rant about this, especially on such a gorgeous spring day when my kids are all inside watching Criminal Minds of all things. Hope y'all are having a great day and your weather and neighborhood allow you to enjoy it!
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I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty