| Show BO 14 bavi pa 1 joys and tribulations of a trailer no I 1 why folks leave home the ties that B BREAKING constitute a definite address tearing out the roots that fix upon this earth an old homestead auctioning the lares and that have been accumulating mu lating for a lifetime nearly a million once anchored home dwellers throughout the united states are now occupied with preparations to take up the bedouin life on the endless trail hither and yon wherever the spirit listeth and the auto camps are disposed to offer the best accommodations my first experience with a concrete illustration of the possibilities in connection with the rolling dom icicles now being built at the rate of half a million per annum takes me back to watertown N Y a week prior to the recent presidential election three miles out of town I 1 came upon a spacious trailer coupled to a low priced car parked in in a grove of pine trees an elderly woman was mending a childs garment beside her sat a husky mongrel dog with quick eyes and good teeth I 1 stopped to make an inquiry sorry not to help you im a stranger here she replied just another stop in my long tour shant see it ever again I 1 dont suppose unmistakably new england from what state I 1 inquired new hampshire born educated in vermont moved to maine and married when twenty that was forty three years ago have two grown sons and one daughter all married and independent of me and five grandchildren A wandering widow A widow these three years husband left some insurance and a nice old homestead with which we had our hands full for twenty five years I 1 simply stand the place after he had gone and so one morning without asking any blodys opinion I 1 went down town and bought a small car which I 1 learned to drive a matter of two weeks with reasonable safety and com comfort fort never know what a joy it was to get away from that house where I 1 slaved and cooked and dusted for nearly forty years looking out on the same garden the same picket fence and the same neighbors and hearing the same gossip sakes alive never know dropping the garment in her lap she eyed me critically oh yes I 1 know all about the small town program what did you do with your problem sold the old homestead auctioned off the worthless accumulation of household effects bought a trailer for and went on the road taking with me on each tour a pair of grandchildren and barney my watchdog im on the way south and will catch up with warm weather before the next president has finished his plans for rebuilding the white house two children a boy and a girl in their early teens came out of the wandering bungalow to remind grandma that the lunch hour was approaching yes my dears she said putting her sewing aside in a few moments we will sit down together not forgetting barney costs a month may I 1 ask what is your budget budge t about a month covers everything no rent no taxes no servants only food and gasoline I 1 do all the cooking buy fresh eggs fowl vegetables and fruit from the farmers drive my own car halting when and where I 1 please at a cost never exceeding a dollar a week for parking space when anybody asks more I 1 go my way to a more agreeable landlord I 1 look forward to ten more years of trailing with my grandchildren who will know more about the united states at the end of that time than I 1 knew when I 1 was in any ny sixtieth year As for myself I 1 am healthy and contented woman glad to be alive and without the shackles of a fixed place of residence and all that it calls for in monotony and responsibility wont you join us for luncheon A hundred yards down the road I 1 turned back to see the free and independent trio waving farewell grandmother standing between the two children like a silent figure upon a peak at darien these are the new argonauts for whom the trails are already broken to thern them the points of the compass mean nothing guided only by the hearts desire they drift disdaining all sense of direction they are the whimsical wanderers gathering in their chariots for a crusade the precise nature of which is still a mystery will they find the promised land who can say so in an earnest effort to shed modicum of light upon the subject I 1 am oft off tor for a two months tour on the trail of the trailers moving like themselves wherever the mood in ites iles and the story unfolds 0 service |
