Apparently the trailer park where I lived out the first years of my life is still around, and it looks much improved from when I ambled through its beer-can-bestudded lanes.

I have only dim memories of it as I was young, but it was squalid and noisy back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Neal Stephenson called North Florida “the trailer park capital of the world.” This is for good reason, though now I think areas like St. Petersburg, Sebring and Tampa compete for this title since so many near-indigent retirees now move to 55+ retirement trailer park communities in those places.

I remember moving away from Paradise Village — what a misnomer! —  and how happy my parents were when we did. I’d never known anything else so I had no idea what to expect.