Some of my relatives on my mother’s side lived in trailer parks.
The thing about mobile homes that are immobile is some are nicer than others. Just like houses. I’ve seen newspaper pages used as window shades along with sheets and curtains and in some of my relatives homes they all looked more or less right at home given the rest of the decor. Newspaper shades were not out of place, hardly noticeable, amid the smells of boiling meat, sticky floors, and cigarette smoke as thick as cotton candy.
We bought a whole bunch of paper shades when we moved into our last house, a temporary privacy fix to be replaced by custom window treatments that take time—time to pick, time to make, and time to hang—whereas paper shades are a peel and stick kinda deal. In that last house, which was in a small neighborhood of newly constructed homes, paper shades looked out of place and with each passing week they grew downright troubling to our most persnickety neighbors, the same persnickety neighbors who felt that outdoor Holiday decorations had to be removed days after the day. We left ours up for months.
If some of my relatives on my mother’s side hung new paper shades in their mobile homes, it would have been an upgrade. A nice touch.
I got to thinking about paper shades when I was thinking about Audiophile Ethernet Switches. Not because they’re the same—everyone knows how a paper shade works and what that work entails which is not something you can say about an Audiophile Ethernet Switch—but because some audiophiles think an ordinary Ethernet switch in an expensive HiFi is gauche where a $3k (on up) switch is more suitable.
Me? Maybe it’s my trailer park history bleeding through but the ordinary $30 Ethernet switch I use suits my tastes and systems just fine. Just don’t tell the neighbors.
