Book depicts humor of trailer park
There's a Possum in the House might sound like the title of a new show on Animal Planet. But it's actually a book of true stories compiled by Jan Holt, a real estate broker who became a co-owner of a mobile home park a few years ago.
Jan Holt wrote There's a Possum in the House about her experiences as owner of a trailer park.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"I had never owned (a mobile home park) before, and I quickly learned that trailer park people are just different. There's nothing derogatory in the book. People just do funny things," Holt said.
After she and her partner, John Phillips, would go home from work laughing every day, Holt said she decided to write the comical incidents in a diary. When Holt later read her diary, she said she thought it would make a funny book.
Each chapter of the book relates a funny incident Holt encountered with one of her tenants. The names have been changed to protect privacy, but their stories are told as they happened.
"I wrote the book the way people talk," Holt said. "A 'thing' is a 'thang.' You know, Southern people have a funny way of talking, and that's how the book reads."
The title of the book comes from one of the chapters describing a resident who had a possum in her trailer, and the many people who became involved in getting it out.
The hardback book will sell for $12, and has 58 pages.
The book will be available July 9 at Borders and Books-A-Million stores, and online at www.amazon.com.
"It's the kind of thing you can read in half an hour," Holt said.
"I don't want to become a millionaire from it. I just want people to laugh like I did, and to know they are enjoying it."
A release party with refreshments and entertainment will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Augusta Museum of History, 560 Reynolds St.
Holt will be at Borders Books, 257 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway, from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday to sign her new book.