HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

For my eighth birthday I wanted a Barbie doll.

When I turned 21 I wanted to party the night away.

I celebrated my 50^th birthday in Paris.

Today is my 56^th birthday. I can’t tell you how excited I was to start my day by shooting photos in an abandoned trailer park.

 

A couple of weeks ago I learned about the Rolling Home Trailer Courts in an article on the Rivard Report. I was hooked as soon as I read the first five words: “In an abandoned trailer park…”

One thing’s for sure, the more I think I’ve got life figured out, the more I realize I don’t. One day I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Until then, I’m going to have fun exploring.

I get downright geeky when it comes to things like sad, old structures. I have this compulsion to take photos of them and capture their souls and spirits. Within all the chipped paint, sagging boards and broken windows, I find a peace and sadness all at once. I wonder what life was like when everything was new and shiny, and I wonder what it will take to make the place feel whole again.

When I got home this evening I told my daughter, “That trailer park was so cool!” To which she replied, “Boy, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said those words.”

True enough. But it won’t be the last time. In the next 18 months or so, Rolling Home Trailer Courts will morph from a sad ghost town to a new community of 28 townhomes – hopefully the catalyst for new growth and positive change in the this area south of downtown.

I hope to be witness to this transformation, documenting it through photos and blog posts along the way. Today was the first step on that journey.

Happy birthday to me.