Warren High School - Hilltop Yearbook (Warren, MA)

Page 16 text:

4. Yi 17:2 . .3 , 3 14 'PHE VILLTOP s f cept as a sort of cart in which to carry baggage while travellingg but when the depression came and with it the loss of homes and jobs, the trailer came into its own. People found they could live more cheaply in trailers and they were not long in taking advantage of this fact. Now the trailer has become a mode of life, and people are living more easily and much more economically than they did in houses. They are having a chance to see the coun- try at their leisure and at a minimum cost. Let us follow the Scott family for a day to see how a trailer family lives. Mr. and Mrs. Scott and Betty and Jack, aged seven- teen and nineteen respectively, rise when they feel like it. While Mrs. Scott is pre- paring breakfast, Betty puts the blankets and sheets away and rearranges the berths for the day. Mrs. Scott prepares breakfast over a three-burner gasoline stove, taking utensils and foodstuffs from cabinets over and under the stove and the metal sink, which is right beside the stove. She has the convenience of both hot and cold water. Fresh milk for breakfast has been left at the door earlier and she brings this in and puts it in the ice-box until breakfast. Betty has set the table between the two lower berths and the bedroom is changed into a dinette with places for four. The trailer has a sliding partition between the little kitchenette and the bed- room which permits privacy. The kitchen- ette is in the middle of the trailerg and there is a curtain between the kitchenette and the other end, in which there is a davenport bed with storage space under- neath it. Part of the davenport slides out to make a double bed at night. There are toilet facilities with a shower and a wash- basin across from the stove and sink. Be- side the toilet near the davenport is a dresser, while on the other side is a tank of water and the water heater. This is in a special compartment and beside the compartment is another dresser. On the inside of the bathroom door is a mirror. There is a compartment for the ironing board and broom near the hot water com- partment. Between the stove and the door is a heater for warmth during the winter. Outside signs of life have gradually been growing louder, and the sound of people calling to their neighbors and the sound of doors slamming announces that the camp is awakening. Doubtless some have been up for many hours fishing in the pond two or three miles away. Jack and Betty do the breakfast dishes while Mrs. Scott busies herself with other duties. The dusting and sweeping take a very few minutes, and afterwards Jack and Betty are free to find some of their friends their own age and play shuffleboard, tennis, horseshoes, or any other entertainment the trailer camp affords. Mr. Scott has taken the car and gone fishing, and while Jack and Betty are off with their friends, Mrs. Scott takes her mending out under the shade of the tree. She sews for a while until a neighbor joins her, and then they talk until it is time to prepare lunch. Betty and Jack come back while she is pre- paring lunch, but Mr. Scott does not re- turn in time. After lunch the three don their bathing suits and go down to the nearby beach. Mr. Scott comes back in the middle of the afternoon with enough fish for dinner. After dinner there is dan- cing and bridge and other amusements with which to pass the time away, or the trailerites can spend a quiet evening in their own trailer with guests in or just themselves. There are electric lights in their trailer, so they would not have to go out because of the lack of electricity. When it is time to go to bed, the berths are made up and the davenport is pulled out and made up. The shades are drawn, and they go to bed in comparative privacy. The life of a trailerite is advantageous for many reasons. It is rather cheap when compared with the ordinary expenses of the average household. So far there are little or no taxes on trailers. There are no real estate taxes and the trailer license is from two to twenty dollars, depending on the size of the trailer and the state in which it is licensed. The original cost of buying a trailer is less than that of even a modest dwelling, and the upkeep is low. In the trailer camps a minimum charge by the week entitles one to lights and electric heat, toilet facilities, all entertain- ment, including Shuffleboard and horse- shoes, dances, card-club sessions, music, and news from the outdoor loud-speaker hooked up to the camp radio. Retired couples or those whose professions are in

Page 15 text:

THE HILLTOP 13 REFLECTIONS BY THE SEASIDE To stroll leisurely by the ocean on a clear, Windy day is .y greatest delight. My steps keep in.. ' e with the steady pounding and cras g of the waves upon the jagged rocks all around. I think, What a carefree world this is! as a pair of sea gulls glide peacefully around the bend and scatter quickly with a hurried flapping of their wings when they notice my presence. The white, flung spray of the giant waves rises high and breaks into a million drops, spraying all in its path. Far out at sea white wind-blown sails are visible as a ship plows slowly through the sea-green waters into port. Why all this hurry and rushing in the world? No mat- ter what goes on all around, the gulls will continue to soar, and this same water will go on forever crashing on decks of sea- going vessels or upon the sandy beach, peaceful, untouched by human hands. Shirley Burnham '39 OLD-FASHIONED PARENTS Are you afflicted with old-fashioned par- ents? If you are, I can sympathize with you. If not, I will tell you what they are, so that you can condole with some of your classmates. They put on the red flannels and winter overcoat November first and would rather die than remove them before Decoration Day. To them spring is a time for sulphur and molasses, housecleaning, and planting the garden. If you should go bareheaded in winter or ask to go swimming before the Fourth of July, they would call you crazy. Father covertly tells you about the days of his youth as a gay young blade, of the days when he used to spend a week in Boston, taking in all the burlesques, and then he won't give you a quarter to go to the movies to see Mae West. When you purchase a suit, it is three sizes too big. When you protest, you are told, Now John, you're a growing boy. By the time it becomes an appropriate fit, it is worn out. Now, John, your father wears a suit for ten years before it's worn out. I don't see Why in the world you can't do the same. Their suits, shoes, and hats are always black and their shirts white. Any other color is too loud and vulgar. It is all foolishness when I wear a different tie every day and want dark- colored plaid shirts. They warn you against contests of all kinds, travelling salesmen, and the install- ment plan. Over some period of time you have saved up two dollars. You invest it in a dandy air rifle. When you display it proudly to your aunt, she says condes- cendingly, That's a great deal of money to spend so foolishly. You should have put it in the bank . The rifle immediately loses all its glamour. They consider money only something to put in the bank, not a means of enjoyment. They do not be- lieve in enjoying it. In Massachusetts the age limit for auto licenses is sixteen years. There is a bill coming up in the legislature to raise it to eighteen years, but if that matter were in their jurisdiction, it would be raised to twenty-one. In their day, a boy could drive a horse 'almost as soon as he could walk. They just don't understand how much a car means to a boy now. If you go to a party, they sit up until you get home and ask so many questions that you never want to go to any more parties. Modern dancing and swing music are sinful. Old-fashioned parents are the monkey-wrenches in the wheels of prog- ress. John Giffin '38 MODERN GYPSIES Carefree and happy, but never willing to stay in one place very long are the modern gypsies who have hitched their wagons to their cars. They travel over mountains, across deserts, up hill, down dale, visiting such places as the Grand Canyon, the Pairited Desert, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, Mt. Ranier Na- tional Park, the Golden Gate in San Fran- cisco, the Mormon Cathedral in Salt Lake City, the sun-drenched valleys in Cali- fornia, Boulder Dam, and the Petrified Forest. These modern gypsies differ from the roving bands of Bohemians who travel from place to place throughout the year and earn their living by telling for- tunes, singing, and dancing. They differ from the desert nomads who wander from one place to another seeking pastur- age for their flocks. Until the later years of the depression the trailer was practically unheard of ex-

Page 17 text:

if B Q, '-1 , if , 4 THE HIELTOP 15 general demand are free to move about, following the sun, their professions, or just plain fancy. Some who do not have independent incomes travel where there are crops to be harvested or other work to be done in the fields and earn money for their expenses in this way, moving on to the next place when the work there is finished. Some salesmen who have taken to using part of a trailer for a showroom and the other part for living quarters have found that they make more sales when the goods are right before the prospective customer than they do from a catalogue. Travel is a great educator and many people, realizing this, have taken to trail- ers as a means of broadening their educa- tion and knowledge of the land in which they live. They feel the urge to travel, to gain knowledge of their country by see- ing the real thing rather than by reading about it from books. Some people in poor health have found travelling in a trailer a means of restoring their health. Middle- aged couples with independent incomes find this a means of spending their middle- age enjoyably. The house-wife, instead of spending a good part of the day doing housework, spends at the most an hour a day besides the preparation of the meals. One of the reasons why people are taking to trailers is that of the lack of taxes to pay. As I have said, there are no real estate taxes to pay and, as yet, little or no taxes on trailers. But if the prophecy of Roger Babson that within twenty years one-half of the population of the United States will be living in trailers comes true, what will happen to our taxes? The population problem is now being speculated upon to a great extent. Probably before long, laws will be made either in the separate state legislatures or the national legislature governing the taxation of trailers and trailerites. But one form of tax the trailerite does pay and pay plenty of is the gasoline tax. Unsanitary conditions breed disease and sickness. An epidemic of some serious disease in a trailer camp might be fatal to a great many. All those who were not sick would be in quarantine and would not be able to leave. We have public health laws in regard to sanitation in towns and cities. If trailers become much more numerous, either these laws would have to be made to apply to trailer camps, or spe- cial laws would have to be made just for trailer camps.. The managers or owners or both would have to see to it that these laws were strictly enforced to drive away any danger of disease. The owners of some of the larger trailer camps have recognized this need and danger and have installed sewage facilities which eliminate this problem of sewage and garbage- disposal. Book learning is not the only kind of education, nor is travel. There are some things which one learns by travelling which he will never learn in books and vice versa. There is a happy medium with the right amount of school and travel. But if one is a rover, where are one's chil- dren to go to school? A trailerite doesn't like to stay in one place long enough for a young person to go to school the whole ten months. Is a child whose parents don't pay taxes in a certain town to be allowed to go to school there? Some towns and cities object to having children who live in trailers go to school in that place be- cause of that very reason: they don't pay taxes in that place. The children must be educated. It all seems to come back to the problem of taxation which will have to be solved by legislation. Who will be able to vote at elections is a problem which will confront the country. Where will voters register? A residence of a certain length of time in a state and town or city is required before one can register. The trailerite is likely to be here today and gone tomorrow. He prob- ably would not want to stay in one place long enough to be able to fill all the qual- ifications. He might lose interest in the welfare of his country to the extent that he might no longer care who was Presi- dent and what he stood for. He might think that one person was as good as an- other and that his vote wouldn't make any difference anyway, so why bother. He might be tempted to leave it to the man back home. This isn't the way to feel, but if voting meant giving up personal liber- ties and wishes that meant a lot to him, I think that the voting would be the one which would lose out. In a trailer camp there are people from all walks of life, people of all kinds: and among them are even petty thieves. There