Single-Wide Trailers: Today's Log Cabins

by Pa Rock

History Buff

Back in the 19th century when my great-great-grandparents and all their neighbors were using mules harnessed to plows to till the soil and plant crops that would sustain them and their livestock through the winter, politicians running for high office, and especially those seeking the presidency, often used a claim of being born in a log cabin to show their connection to the hard-working agrarians who were taming the savage land one plowed row at a time.  History tells us that seven of the 45 individuals who served as President of the United States actually began their lives in log cabins:  Andrew Jackson, Zachary. Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and James A. Garfield.

Today there is a modern equivalent to being "born in a log cabin" that politicians are beginning to use.  Some are proudly boasting of "growing up in a single-wide trailer."  For those unfamiliar with life in a trailer (a.k.a. mobile home), know that their styles, quality, and level of comfort vary widely.  Some offer nice living arrangements, especially big, spacious double-wides, but the single-wides are usually found down at the cheap end of the trailer park, and living in a single-wide often connotes an existence closer to the poverty level.

I bring up the subject of single-wide trailers today because my congressman, Rep. Jason Smith (R, MO), mentioned in his weekly email newsletter this morning that he grew up in a single-wide trailer, a boast that he occasionally trots out.  Congressman Smith, who had a balance north of $5 million in his primary campaign account in mid-July of this year, has likely reached that sweet spot in life where he knows he will ever have to live in a single-wide trailer again - yet it is nice to have it as a connection point when visiting with folks back home who will never have their own single-wide trailers paid for, much less have money in the bank.

Break out those weekend blue jeans and hit the coffee shops, Jason.  We all know you're the spitting image of one of us.  And if running for higher office at some point is on your bucket list, that shtick about growing up in a single-wide trailer should be a real vote-getter.  Everybody loves a good rags-to-riches story!