The first indication of how the beloved pink bird would soon become our motto and mascot was at our first Christmas Rally White Elephant Gift Exchange. In December 2000, four couples gathered at Galveston to celebrate the holiday season. After our rally supper, we began our gift exchange. Someone DARED to bring the tackiest thing they could bring for the gift exchange..…imagine that! Little did we know that it would be the hit of the party! We fought valiantly over that pair of birds; however they ended up in the hands of a couple who were leaving to traverse the country as fulltimers. We received many emails of their adventures and everywhere they went, the birds were photographed in fabulous, exotic places.

Three months would pass and eight couples would gather for our first Easter Rally at an RV Park on I-35 just east of San Antonio We are leaving out the name of the park for obvious reasons that will later be explained. It just so happened that a Motorhome Group was at the same park at the same time. They were of the “$500,000+ persuasion” and were every bit as snobbish as the price tags on their rigs. It was very apparent by their actions that we were certainly not in their class. All attempts to be polite to this RV group went on deaf ears and upturned noses. We’ve never been treated so badly by other campers before or since. That afternoon, a couple in our group was out walking their pet when they overheard them talking about “the trailer trash that was having a rally in the same park”. There was no doubt they were talking about us! This group was absolutely astonished that the RV Park would allow another group to share the same space with….them?

Later that night, we all gathered outside a rig and enjoyed visiting with one another. Someone brought up the term “trailer trash” and we all added our definitions of what that might be. The question “what is the tackiest thing that truly depicted trailer trash” was asked…………we all chimed in that it could be none other than having a pink flamingo in our yard!

The next morning, the RV Group left…………and left the RV Park in shambles. They allowed their pets in the swimming pool and the rally building and left residue (of the four legged kind) all over the place. Their sites were a muddy mess as they washed their rigs before leaving (which was against the park rules), but of course none of that mattered….they were of the $500,000+ persuasion you know.

Unfortunately, the Texas Boomers got blamed for it though! The rest of the day was spent on a recognizance mission - we were “cited” for everything imaginable and unimaginable by the RV Park owners.

That did it! We decided if we were going to be called “trailer trash” and be blamed for every infraction caused by the other RV Club - we would show them was true trailer trash was! The ladies headed to Garden Ridge that afternoon to buy our pink flamingoes! Thus our mascot was birthed!

Over the years, the pink flamingo has become our status symbol. We take pride in what we have regardless of the price tag attached. We work hard and make sacrifices to get our RV’s and take care of them for as long as we have them.

And they’ve become our statement as well. We are not an exclusive RV Group as many are. It doesn’t matter if you have a pop-up, a 5th wheel or a $500,000+ motorhome with all the bells and whistles. What matters is being a part of a great group of people, making new friends from across the state, enjoying a rally filled with fun and laughter and doing what we all live and love to do - get out in our rigs.

Wherever we go, our birds follow. They are proudly displayed in front of our RVs and create quite a stir with other RV’ers in the parks. The story is told far and wide and the Texas Boomers continues to grow because others see that we’re good, honest folks just like them. If that makes us “trailer trash” then we’re proud to be called that!