Why Are So Many Trailers Just Sitting There?
Do they owners of these trailers know where they are? Maybe, maybe not. Photos: Tom Berg
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Do they owners of these trailers know where they are? Maybe, maybe not. Photos: Tom Berg
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Last weekend I needed to be in my old home state of Wisconsin for a cousin’s funeral, and instead of driving up from Ohio I rode on Amtrak. It takes more time, but the ride is enjoyable because I can doze, closely watch the passing scenes, read a newspaper, magazine or book, and even do some writing.
I’m starting this item on Sunday. The funeral finished the day before; tears were shed, relatives and friends greeted, and I’m now headed toward home on Amtrak’s eastbound Capitol Limited, rolling through the night in northern Indiana. In a few hours, just before midnight, we’ll arrive in Toledo, where I’ll leave the train, climb into my cold car and drive a couple of hours south to Westerville.
Railroad tracks tend to run past America’s back yards. Some of the scenes are gritty, especially in old, big cities, where many things have deteriorated over the years and litter has been strewn and left to rot. Even in small towns and rural areas, there are abandoned and neglected buildings, and all kinds of debris – scraps of old wood and chunks of aged concrete scattered around a property, and sometimes old cars and trucks, seemingly parked one last time by hoarders who probably weren’t aware that their unwillingness to discard anything is a recognized psychiatric disorder.
Then again, while riding out of Milwaukee on the Hiawatha, I spotted a modern terminal, gleaming white in the winter afternoon sun, everything clean and orderly on its acres of clean concrete. Trailers were parked smartly in ranks or backed against docks, with several staged in precise lines nearby, apparently waiting to be grabbed and loaded, then sent on their way.
Trailers! At new places and old, …Read the rest of this story
