Laundry Pole

Let's recognize the laundry pole in the back yard.  I'll bet there are thousands still standing, in yards all over the city, but I certainly don't see many round here.  Back in 2003 the Times ran a piece about them:

Many of the poles were probably made by Poles McCarthy, a century-old business in Flatbush, Brooklyn ... The poles, which began to replace wooden ones half a century ago, were carried to backyards in sections, welded together, hoisted into place and set in concrete. But these days, Mr. McCarthy said, people mostly ask him to take poles down.

Poles McArthy was more recently listed at an address in Kensington. Our laundry pole still stands proudly, right next to the garden shed, and has been frequently used as a ladder by phone repairmen.  It used to have two lines attached, one of which ran to the third floor kitchen, but now there's just the one.  Behind the pole & the shed a newish apartment building looms, but here I can make it disappear.