1 Wing - Marville

Closing the Trailer Park

We first began hearing rumors during the summer of 1965 that the airbase at Marville, France would close in 1966 and we would all move to Germany. I had worked with many of the technicians who came to Marville on detachment from Trenton with 437 Squadron and some of them came to my home in the Maple Leaf Trailer Park to visit on their days off. They often said that the word around Trenton was the detachment at Marville would be moving to northern Germany or maybe even Holland. One of the cabin crew on a Yukon who I knew from Trenton told me that he overheard senior officers speaking about the up coming move as he was serving them dinner on a flight from Trenton in the autumn of 1965.

The rumors finally became a reality in 1966 and the bottom fell out of the resale market for our mobile homes. Many families sold at a portion of what they had originally paid when they returned to Canada in 1966. Bitter feelings towards President Charles De Gaulle ran ramped throughout the trailer park. The local French who worked on the airbase were also effected by this turn of events. Trailers that would bring $4,000 were suddenly going for two and less. My neighbor who hoped to realize upwards to $5,000 was forced to sell for less than $2,000 when he had no prospects at his bargain price of $2,500.

Charlie Cox was not able to sell his one bedroom trailer with large extension and storage building at any price. He gave me power of attorney in July of 1966 as he was leaving for Edmonton within the week and still had not disposed of his trailer. This piece of chattel became extremely valuable for my family, as I will explain further along in this narrative.

At the beginning of 1967 my family and I had made the decision to return to Canada when my four-year posting was completed in the autumn of that year. We had originally thought of asking for a one-year extension but were not keen on moving to Germany and then back to Canada the following year.

We had paid $2,000 for a small two-bedroom trailer in April of 1964 and spent considerable time renovating and improving our dwelling. Much of the lumber was gleaned from the local dump where the tip tank boxes for CF-104’s were thrown before burning. Not wishing to see good Canadian lumber turned into ashes I asked for and received permission to move this material to where my trailer stood. With the help of Frank Vaughan I built a large extension on at C-6. I kept all receipts for nails, roofing paper, siding and anything purchased at the local lumber yard or hardware store in the village. A complete new plumbing and drainage system was installed as the previous one was broken and plugged when I had purchased the unit. The receipts proved extremely valuable when the final tally was negotiated.

In February of 1967 those of us who owned trailers in the Maple Leaf Trailer Park were offered a pro-rated rebate on our units. Depending on the price we paid plus any receipts for repairs, improvements and maintenance would be considered in the rebate. We were paid on April 1st, 1967 - and from that date until we returned to Canada the Canadian government charged temporary PMQ rent for the trailers. I took the money from the sale of my trailer ($1,600 US) and moved to the trailer I’d bought from Charlie Cox.

The trailers not accepting the rebate were helped by a committee set up on the airbase to sell their trailers to the locals. The furniture in our mobiles was not part of the rebate and this committee supervised the sale of these goods. Lucy Dickey, who spoke French, helped in the translating during negotiations. I recently spoke with Lucy and her recollection of the events has faded from her memory after more than thirty years.

A Corporal who worked in the base hospital owned a Buick car and moved many of the trailers bought by the French and Belgium people. I recall this most vividly as one day I was gassing up at the Esso station owned by Lou Gagne, a Canadian living in France when this Buick arrived for gas. As he was leaving the filling station the trailer he was towing crashed into the side of my soon to be shipped home new Valiant.

In my particular case I recall seeing more than the equivalent of $300 US for the sale of furniture. Considering I had lived in the trailer for 36 months and saw a return of almost my purchase price I feel we did quite well and was not treated unfairly.

When I took power of attorney of Charlie Cox’s trailer I paid him his asking price of $800 US and rented the unit for 10 months thusly recouping my purchase price. I lived in this trailer during the months of April until July when I returned to Canada and sold it to a gentleman from Belgium for $800 US complete with all furnishings.

We fondly recall the three years we lived in the Maple Leaf Trailer Park and even if we had left everything there and saw no return of our investment it was far better than driving to and from work over very treacherous roads for four years.

I always have regretted not taking pictures of the dismantling of the trailer park!

This is how I remember the closing of the Maple leaf Trailer Park!

There is one other thing I have recently remembered and it has to do with all the jerry cans and gas bottles that we owned to store propane and heating oil in. I think that after all these years have passed I feel safe in telling this story. There were actually hundreds of those strewed around the trailer park after it was dismantled and I gathered many of them up and with the help of an old French gentleman from a nearby village disposed of them for a tidy profit which we shared. International co-operation at work in it’s simplest form !!

Courtesy of Roger Cyr - February 2005