Frank, from away, writes: “John, I’m new to Maine and I’m slowly getting used to different things in Maine. We moved here from a southern state where lots of people live in mobile homes or trailers. When grouped together, as they often are, the resulting community is called a ‘trailer park.’ You’ve probably read stories about southern trailers – the things that get banged around a bit every time there’s a hurricane or a tornado. Some say it’s Mother Nature’s way of saying just what she thinks of these things. Anyway, since moving to Maine I’ve noticed that you have your share of trailers here, too, but you never hear about them getting blown around during bad weather. Why is that, John?”

Thanks for the email, Frank. I don’t know where in the South you’re from, but someone once asked me: What do Florida hurricanes and Maine divorces have in common? The answer: In both cases some poor fella’s going to lose his trailer.

All seriousness aside, ships have been a big part of Maine’s history and although they’re not “trailers,” ships are certainly examples of “mobile homes.” Over the centuries, hurricanes and other storms have taken many fine Maine ships to the bottom or slammed them to pieces on ledges. I guess that’s the closest we come to feeling Mother Nature’s wrath against homes that move. Our trailers, on the other hand, don’t get treated too badly at all by Mother Nature.

My grandfather lived on board ships for most of his professional life and he used to say they moved constantly – even while in port tied to a dock.

Grandfather used to say all houses built in Maine liked to move around, some more than others, depending on who built them and where they’re built.

He once said, “You can put a house anywhere you want and over the years the rocks and ledges under that house will move and that will make the house on top of the ledges move and they’ll all keep moving around until rocks and ledges and house are where they want to be.”

The idea of living in a real mobile home or trailer has never enjoyed wide acceptance among the majority, who prefer to live in what might be called immobile homes. Maybe it goes back to the world’s first mobile home dwellers – roaming bands of gypsies who traveled across Europe in horse-drawn “mobile homes” as far back as the 1400s.

But before we go any further I have to straighten something out for Frank.

Makers of “trailers” never liked the name, so they began insisting that their creations be called “mobile homes.” No matter what they were called, everyone knew they were still trailers. Then in 1980 Congress officially changed the name to “manufactured home.” But, like I said, they’ll always be trailers to the rest of us.

No matter what you call them, historians tell us that America’s first examples of domiciles that move were built in the 1870s and used as beachfront homes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Knowing what would happen to a house left on the banks all winter, the owners of these early mobile homes would hitch them up to a team of horses and move them inland.

As early as 1926, someone got the idea of hitching a “trailer coach” behind an automobile and making a fast exit out of town. These first trailer coaches were used by families on camping trips. They were seen as a home away from home.

A strong demand for mobile homes began at the end of World War II, when returning veterans needed housing that could be built quickly and cheaply. Mobile homes were not only cheap – in every sense of the word – but they could be hitched behind the family car and towed to where the jobs were, like someplace out of Maine.

That’s all for now. I’m moving on.

John McDonald is the author of five books on Maine, including “John McDonald’s Maine Trivia: A User’s Guide to Useless Information.” Contact him at mainestoryteller@yahoo.com.

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