The Trailer

Schwarty & Michael making casserole before lightning strike.

We began looking and decided to take on a roommate. Tom Perks from Bartly, NE; one of the few non-education majors….but one of the “other types” at CSC, Ag- Management or similar….I believe he is a Park Ranger or something in WY now. He was an original Edna Hall boy before Edna Hall boys were all moved into Andrews, Kent and High Rise so Edna could be remodeled. He was a shy and quiet guy from the class of 2003. He didn’t party and had no girlfriend at the time. He was also part of the same group we hung out in. He was the perfect choice, except for he was going home to Bartly for the summer. We decided to take on another roomie who would be going back to the dorms or in with someone else at the end of the summer. His name was Justin Schwarting from Rushville, NE I believe. AND GET THIS!!!!! He was neither major! We are talking a RARITY here! He was into some sort of Biology or something. His workstudy job was classifying bugs, particularly butterflies and dragonflies …… whoa!

Michael eating hail off floor by patio.

After looking at nearly every available rental at the time in Chadron, we decided on Redwood or Regency (depending on the entrance you used) Trailor Court (I SWORE I’D NEVER!!!!!!) But there we were. It was actually the biggest place we looked at. The last one was out by those ponds and had a really really steep drive out to the highway that Wayne said our vehicles would never make all winter. Then the one before that was 20 yards from the landlords house out in the country and had lots of dogs running around. The only other one I remember being available was in the north trailer park and that one had lots and lots of minorities with bad rep’s (to put it nicely).  There were absolutely NO APARTMENTS in Chadron for rent. I mean there were like 2 or 3 complexes but they were all low income and you had to have kids to even apply for them and then it was over a year wait to get in.

trees down 2 trailers down after big storm

Redwood #68 had been previously rented by one of the 5 other people from Holdrege who had gone to college in Chadron and she had been a ball girl with me for volleyball back in 5^th grade.  Ironic.

Turns out she didn’t get out by the date she was supposed to, the landlord didn’t clean up when she moved out and had us do it (absolutely discusting! Mold in Tom’s bathtub and toilet, dog food under the sink, bugs!!!!! I about had it right then, Wane took care of it though). Then she left her broken down 37 county (Phelps- Holdrege) there and it eventually was towed away. Then turns out my name was never put on the paperwork because it would have jacked up the rent to have 3 people verse 2. The landlord was such a jerk! Other than all these fiascos for my first home, it was the best place available at the time.

Dog Pile on futon in living room.

Tom had the back bedroom toward the edge of the park by the highway. It had a bathroom which had a door to the hallway and a door to his room. There was a laundry “closet” with no doors, so more of an alcove. Then the kitchen was one long counter with the sink and stove and oven and pantry all along it. The dishwasher was broken and the landlord just said “yep, it’s broken.” Then across from it there was the tiniest little blue fridge. Oh and the dryer didn’t work so we had the landlord come get it, and we hauled Wayne’s down from his home in Rapid that he sold. Then when we moved out the landlord was like “where’s the dryer,  (darrrr).” What a winner. We had duct tape over a sparking outlet and 2x3’ patch of linoleum was put in the master bath where the fore mentioned girl had fallen through! Neighbors told us that one.

In our master bedroom scrapbooking. 

Back to the positive, there was a HUGE dining area on an upraised platform which fit both a full dining room table and the foosball table (commercial grade like you find in a bar, no mini rec one). Then we had our computers in the back quarter of the huge living room. Next came a futon, a couch and 2 chairs followed by scrapbook shelves and an entertainment center all in the living room. That was nice. We fit lots of people in there.

Then we had the master bedroom/closet/bathroom with his and hers everything. It also had this extra room which wasn’t really a porch because it was all indoor, but it really wasn’t a room either because it was freezing in the winter and scorching in the summer. We ended up hanging  heavy blanket over it and putting our deep freeze, Tom’s fridge, and all sorts of storage, then our 1^st Christmas tree all out there.

It also had a nice deck, a fenced in yard, and a shed out back (which is still there even though the trailer isn’t).

Hail in entry room w/freezers & fridge.

Hail on deck looking like snow.

Sonya & Michael lived with us there for a couple of months and she had a fling with “Shwarty (shorty)”. One night while Wayne was at work and I was headed to a meeting for work there was this HUGE thunderstorm and the entire town was flooding. A semi was trapped on the highway through town, I ended up turning around and going back home. As I am half a block away there was a BLINDING WHITE FLASH AND DEAFENING LOUD CRACK. Yeah, no power, things smoking and buzzing. Lightning struck the trailer! I called Wayne home since none of the rest of us technically “lived” there. He called the landlord, who never showed up but did call the power company for us. We hung out at the neighbor’s house for a couple hours.

We held some killer parties there. We also got huge news while we lived there……