Jay Eckert Notes, 3/11/08

Cindy called me this morning at work to tell me there was an excavator over at the old trailer park so I went home that way after work. In the late 50s my father, seeking to put a corner of the property to work after the highway department purchased a swath through the middle of our farm (and which has never been used for anything), decided to build a small trailer park. He built four spaces, concrete pads with carports, and a laundry and storage building. He put all the wiring underground, except for the phone lines. We had a number of long-term residents, the Mensings, Mr Strickland, the Wenzels, the Snoozys, and the Davises, who left and returned a couple times because they followed heavy construction around the northwest. I helped my father plant black maple trees, one on each space, and mowed the lawns.

The Dike District appears to have purchased most of our old property. I think they want to move the dike away from the river and establish an overflow area where the trailer park is, for when the river nears flood stage.

I would drive past the place from time to time, it is on the way home if we are coming from Burlington, and I would enjoy the sight of the maple trees. They are huge, bigger than I ever could have imagined they would get when I helped plant them. As for the trailer park, the place had become kind of junky, as the spaces were too small for the newer trailers (which we had become aware of in the late 60s) and I think the old ones were just rentals. Then suddenly the trailers were all empty and “Keep Out” signs were posted on them by the Dike District. I began to think about the trees, one of the last connections with my father.

So I drove home that way and pulled off the road across from the trailer park and took a bunch of pictures. The trees were still there, the guy in the excavator was tearing up the concrete pads. Dad had rented a cement mixer and mixed all the concrete by hand, and done most of the work himself, after coming home from work. People did stuff like that back then. You didn't hire people, you didn't have the money but you had the time and your own muscle to do stuff. Oh, he did hire Eldon Miller and his Case dozer from down the road to do the main clearing.

After taking pictures I went over and talked to the guy in the excavator, told him who I was. He said he wasn't going to take the trees out, just tear up the concrete. He didn't know what they would do with the trees or even what they planned to do with the property. I told him that Dad had built it himself and he was impressed. Sometimes I hate to tear up this stuff but that's what they pay me to do, he said.

Yeah, I said, things change.

And then I drove home.