'Trailer trash' still maintains its original use, it has not mutated in meaning around here.   Unfortunately 'trash' is still very much in use, to describe people who seem to live their lives and keep their homes and yards to very low standards.

Alanabit, if you don't have a lot of firsthand info to impart to these kids, don't worry, its just as well to just let the literature speak for itself and the kids make of it what they will, and for those who are fascinated with that era, ask the school librarian for a short list of appropriate books.

"Effect of poverty on black and white people in the United States".

In those days poverty meant deprivation, ignorance, no opportunity to travel or experience other cultures, bookless or one-book (Bible) homes, field labor instead of school (or very short, minimal school years), need to work hard from dawn to dusk much of the year. Leap at the chance for a good time when it is available. Powerlessness and resentment at that, and that went triple for Black people.   Ability to live very simply and pride in doing so. Big interest in hunting and fishing, as a getaway and a food source. Loyalty to neighbors and reliance on the little church down the road for knowledge and strength.

These days, you could say a lot of it would be the same, minus the field labor (often replaced by having to work 2-3 junky jobs with no benefits) and plus drug problems, and the powerlessness has drawn much closer to even between the races.

I assume this is similar to the effects of poverty on people anywhere, no? And P.S. for our British friends, a lot of our 'po-white's are descendants of people considered human 'trash' by your 'nobility' who put them through land clearances to make room for extra sheep-grazing, and they wound up on ships to America.   I imagine you can also read deep significance into this. There is a special hostility, transience, and who-gives-a-damn-how-I-live which can develop when you are severely displaced and dispossessed.


P.S.to "Q" - I love that cookbook despite its tacky name: the cola chicken, the orange candy cake, the baloney roll-ups on the refrigerator door---and the epitome is the white-trash trifle described in the Sweet Potato Queen's book, featuring Twinkies, pudding mix and fruit cocktail. They can keep haute cuisine, we don't need it!