My Kind of Place: We Just up and Left

My kind of place: We just up and left

What I feel about the anecdotes in this chapter, “We Just up and left” by Susan Orlean, are rather sad events and awful ways in which people live in a mobile home. I say this in relation to the way people see living an expensive life is waste of resources, how people on the run use these mobile homes as their hideouts. This is all seen in her visit to a mobile home park in Oregon - Portland Meadows Mobile Home Park. She reflects trailer parks in general, in that they seem to attract disaster when they have dreamy sounding names, and how trailers are less expensive form of shelter and the most mobile too. Another story is of a woman who used to live in a mobile home park in Colorado. She said to Orlean, "'When the wages dropped in the sixties, we just up and left... Up and left.'" (Orlean, p. 221). I tend to think that these stories of real people and true events pointed out by the author are an effective way of showing readers like you and I the often hidden, potentially stereotyped communities of the world in an unbiased light. I would say Orlean uses anecdotes to bring out unbiased perception of life in a mobile home park.

The author greatly employs the use of anecdotes - stories of different people who Orlean met in the trailer park. She begins with a story of a man who used to own a hundred cats in a trailer and then recounts stories of many other people who lived in the park at one point, but then left. She gives a description of the trailer park itself, which is hidden and unnoticed from the main road. She also introduces the managers of the park, through anecdote, how they found their way into the park, how their life is like there, and how they are part of the community. Anecdotes are the most effective way to achieve her purpose, to give the reader a different view of mobile home parks. From Orleans stories, I would say that the community is so much economical when it comes to the standards of living. This is seen in the conversation Paul May had with Orlean when Paul asked where Orlean lived. Orlean said New York and May whistled and said, “That’s pretty spending, I like to save my money.” (Orlean, p. 224). The use of trailers as homes also shows how economical the community is, they fear spending their cash. A woman too came in asking if Jan knew a way to remove a tattoo that wouldn’t cost a fortune. They value more having more money than rather throwing it away to fancy lifestyle. They also value their properties since they keep on inheriting from the previous generations. The people of Portland care for one another as seen in the advice about not to buy a single-wide trailer.