No one but me will care about this post...

...but this time of year I’m just so happy to live in Tuckaway that I wanted to talk about it, Blog. The square-quarter-mile area that is now home to approximately eight condo complexes used to be a golf course, and you can tell even now because of the hills, trees, and water features. So I wanted to share the spring beauty with any of our readers who don’t find this topic utterly boring.

To me it was super-NOT boring to research Tuckaway’s past thanks to great archived issues of the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel (everyone should look at newspapers from their childhoods online, Blog). Here’s a way cool ad from Oct. 3, 1968 announcing the opening of the very first condos built on the former lands of the Tuckaway of Greenfield Golf Course (1926-1967). As you can see, condos were a pretty new thing back then.

The text proudly announces “Wisconsin’s first totally electric Condominium Village!” and goes on to say, “What is a condominium village? Simply, it’s a place where you can purchase your own townhouse instead of renting it. You can enjoy all of the many advantages of home ownership and yet be free from the burdens of yard care and the many other chores associated with home ownership.” What a concept, hey, Blog?

It took a long time to develop all the land, from 1968 all the way up to a couple years ago. Our particular condo association, Windermere Estates, opened in 1977. Like its predecessors, it was billed as high end luxury condo living. (I bet the people of 1977 would be amazed to see what qualifies as high end luxury condo living nowadays!) Wow, it had units with fireplaces and sunken living rooms (we don’t have either)! Anyway here’s one view of our place (gray trim) in its park-like environs.

Our condos’ biggest claim to fame then, as now, is that the units are stand-alone. Our realtor told us there are only two areas in Greater Milwaukee with stand-alone condos. From 1977 to 2003 when we bought our place, the condo values more than doubled. Meanwhile, the condo fees more than tripled. Here’s another view of our house, showered with flower petals.

May is the best time to take walks around Tuckaway, Blog. There are a ton of flowering trees, like this one that shelters Davie’s car, Biscuit Boy. (Davie would edit “shelters” to “sheds on.”)

Yes, Blog, TONS of flowering trees.

I always wanted to live in a Tudor style house so I am thrilled to live in Windermere, which looks like a little Tudor village.

It’s pretty in all the condo areas though. Here’s a gorgeous tulip bed in La Casa Real, where the buildings have a Spanish style. Throughout Tuckaway the public garden spaces are kept up beautifully like this.

And likewise our neighbors all put a lot of effort into their own landscaping. These immense lilac bushes and the flower beds beneath them are privately owned.

Here’s a grove of trees to the south of us that I just love.

Fountainview is one of the complexes that has been built in Tuckaway very recently. The trees are a bit immature for my liking, but the fountain is certainly pretty.

Here’s the one area in Tuckaway, besides ours in Windermere, where I’d like to live. This tree-lined pond is so beautiful.

It’s endlessly amusing to me to imagine 50 years ago when all this was an 18-hole golf course. I picture Don Draper-like businessmen traipsing over our hills in plaid pants and golf caps, making deals, talking about the Milwaukee Braves and drinking Schlitz.

And now I know the historical significance of the place. I mean wow, Blog--Wisconsin’s first all-electric condominium homes were here! Never mind that our condo has gas heat and we converted our electric stove to gas.

I’d sure love it if one of these days, digging in the flower bed, I turned up an old golf ball.