In Briny Breezes, some sad at selling $1 million trailers [South Florida]
Back in the early days, before telephones, air conditioning, television and double-wides, a loudspeaker chronicled many of the joys of tropical life, trailer-park style.
When dolphins frolicked just offshore, the manager’s wife announced the sight on the public-address system. When families returned from Michigan or Ohio towing their 18-foot “tin cans” for another winter of bliss, the PA crackled with the news and the promise of another welcome-back party.
“People would come to help you unpack and get you settled in and stay a spell,” remembers Dorothy McNeice, 79, who first wintered here in 1938. “They were all very friendly and all in the same boat — coming from different states with their families. There were many gatherings. That was the Briny way.”
Today, nearly two weeks after residents of Palm Beach County’s tiniest town voted to sell their 488 mobile-home lots to condo developers for $510 million — making many of them future millionaires — the same culture of neighborliness and spontaneity prevails.