1959 - The parking lot from hell. - - and the clotheslines in back.

I accidentally deleted Peter's comment. He said something along the lines of he cleaned it once too and thought it a nasty job. Sorry, Peter. :o( That's the best I can do until you re-enter your comment.

6/10/15 - It doesn't show in the picture, but there was about 25-30 feet of grass between the gravel and the fence separating us from the neighbor. Lawn chairs were put out for guests on that section of lawn and, on the left, behind the cars were the clotheslines. What prompted this remembrance was an eMail from Doug, part of which I'll enter in the next comment.

6/10/15 - This is what Doug sent - and it's all true!

Remembering Clotheslines - Basic Rules
(If you don't even know what clotheslines are, better skip this.)

1. Hang socks by the toes. Not the top.
2. You hung pants by the bottom/cuffs, not waistbands.
3. You had to wash the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes by walking the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.
4. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang 'whites with whites', and hang them first.
5. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?
6. Wash day on a Monday! Never hang clothes on the weekend or on Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
7. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so unmentionables were hidden in the middle
8. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather... Clothes would freeze-dry.
9. Always gather clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky"!
10. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.
11. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed. Ironed??!! Well, that's a whole other subject!
12. Long wooden pole (clothes pole) was used to push clotheslines up so that longer items (sheets/pants/etc.) didn't brush the ground and get dirty.

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This brought back laundry memories of Wildwood (which I might have written about somewhere else here but, oh well) - in the next comment.

Yes, washing on Monday, ironing on Tuesday - as I learned when I worked for Aunt Gretel and Uncle Harry. To this day I despise ironing. Thank goodness it was only our clothes - they sent out the linens to a professional laundry. The sheets and pillowcases from the guests were counted, and picked up, then returned some other day blindingly white and pressed. Some time after Uncle Harry died, Aunt Gretel became dissatisfied with the laundry service and we took the linens to the laundromat along with our personal laundry. Perhaps a couple of years after that Aunt Gretel installed a washer next to the bath house and "we" did the linens ourselves.

Oh, yes, Monday washing and Tuesday ironing. The last few years I was there Aunt Gretel began replacing the white, heavy, cotton sheets, with colorful (and sometimes patterned) poly/cotton blends. I loved those. Aunt Gretel said as long as I smoothed them well and took care in folding, I shouldn't need to iron them. I guess you'd not be surprised to learn that all I ever ironed after that were the pillowcases, maybe. It's also not surprising that I was a big adopter of poly and poly/cotton blends in clothes. :o)

I remember the grass between the gravel parking lot and fence too. This was a favorite place for us to have a catch or throw a frisbee - although we did have to be mindful of those sitting on lawn chairs.

I may be mistaken, but I also thought at some point/time there were horseshoes too. Towards the back. Perhaps we set them up.

I never had the honor of working at Wildwood in any fashion so no stories. But one day, perhaps in the middle of another Wisconsin Winter, I should document my Wildwood memories of yesteryear. They are all good :)