Tin castles

I've been here in dad's retirement park for about a month now. It's actually a pretty cheap place to live, if you are into that lifestyle. There's a monthly park fee, but water service and lawn care are included. Use of the facilities like game rooms and swimming pools are also included. There are perfectly livable double wide trailers going for the price of a good used car. There are worse ways to live on a small retirement pension.

What doesn't make sense are the brand new places going in at the park. They are asking $66,000 for a glorified trailer that will decrease in value every year. Worse yet, they still are on the hook for monthly park fees.

A good friend of mine and his wife lived in a trailer while he was going back to school. He left an expensive rent for a cheap trailer park. The money saved allowed him to finish his training. We had loads of fun doing improvements to the place. He had a connection to a guy who was always selling cheap building materials. (dis window fell offa da truck. . . ) We did a pretty good job of transforming that old trailer into a decent place to live.

My dad's place is one of those 55 and over retirement parks. I've been coming down to Florida long enough that I'm more than old enough to live here if that's what I wanted. Say what you will about the gray haired golf cart crowd, they have a sense of community. That's got to be worth something. They interact and help each other more than in most normal neighborhoods.

One guy I knew left the park to buy a huge house during the 2008 bubble bust. It was a great house, but he was very isolated from his neighbors. There was no sense of community. Since then he's sold the big house and moved back north -into a small trailer. Sometimes it's not about impressing people.

As for myself, I'd rather live on a sailboat. Parks have a lot of rules and regulations, something I'm allergic to.

-Sixbears