Space was a luxury in the older model trailers.  Trailer dwellers were constantly trying to find ways to save on space!  In our 8ft wide home, with 6 occupants, having room for a table was a problem… so… my father made us a table that was hinged to the wall and folded down, when needed, by merely adding removable legs that could be inserted at the end of the table.  When meal time was over, merely remove the legs, fold up the table and it folded flush against the wall…  But here is the creative part of this idea!  In order to disguise the fact that this was a table anchored to your wall, my father made the under side of the table appear as a framed canvas and had my mother paint a landscape in the frame.  Now, no one suspected anything!  Everyone thought we had a magnificent piece of art in our trailer, when in fact it was merely our kitchen table!  Classy, huh!?

     When the family started to grow, no one ever had room to add baby beds in these older trailers, so you needed to use something for a bed that was already in the trailer… and this was the drawers!  We started with the smallest drawer and it was always decorated or accented in some way to identify that drawer as the baby's bed, and as the baby grew mother simply moved the infant to the next size larger drawer.  When baby finally exhausted every drawer in the trailer and needed something larger, then the cages began!  The cage beds were small children's beds with barred sides that lifted up (hinged at the top) to let the child in and out.  At bed time, you placed the child in the bed and dropped the barred side down and locked it (hook and eye) so the child couldn't fall out of bed during the night, but could still get out themselves if they had to by reaching through the bars and flipping open the hook lock!  The purpose of the cage beds was once again to conserve on space!  The cage beds were stackable! One on top of the other! You could accommodate 3 children in a sleeping area that normally would only have room for on single bed by sticking the cage beds one on top of the other from floor to ceiling!  Talk about conserving space!

     No home is complete without a television set, but who had room for a TV in these older model trailers?  Once again you had to look for an enclosed space that already existed. In our trailer the space we found was a built in kitchen cupboard above the refrigerator. My father removed the cupboard door, added a frame around the opening for a more finished look, and placed our TV in the opening!  We had the first built in TV in the trailer park!

     When our family of 6 just became too crowded for our trailer, my parents had to expand and double-wides did not exist in the 50's!  Our trailer had front and back doors on the same side of the trailer.  My father found another trailer that was for business offices, just one large room and one small rear room.  This trailer had a front and rear door on the same side, and also a door on one end.  My father's plan was to create his own version of the double-wide and merely pull the trailer up parallel with our original trailer and match up the doors.  He sealed the doorways and there were hall ways from one trailer to the other!  Suddenly our trailer became the mansion of trailers in the park!

     In our trailer park, everyone was limited on space!  To accommodate children and pets was a challenge.  My father found a way to meet the needs of play for his children by day and housing for his dogs by night.  He built an elaborate doll house with locking doors, widows, flower boxes, a tiny mailbox, and a ladder inside to a ledge for storage.  During the day the house was ours to dream and play in, but at night the dogs were locked in there as the most elaborate dog house in the neighborhood!  The storage shelf was for the dog feed.  Then behind the doll/dog house, he built an overhang that we used for a porch, but in the winter it was storage for all his yard tools.  Pretty thrifty!