GREEN BAY, Wis. — A passer-by from South Carolina once asked Mark Anderson if shoveling out your front yard in the winter was something everyone in Wisconsin did.

You know, like shoveling the sidewalk.

“I said, ‘No, it’s to park cars.’ He said, ‘I just thought everyone shoveled their lawns too in Wisconsin,'” Anderson recounted.

One would be forgiven Saturday morning for doing a double take at several Green Bay homes where people were shoveling, snowplowing or snow blowing their front yards to make way for game day parking.

That’s what Anderson was doing.

“Regular people have been parking here for years. They’ll call me the weekend of. ‘Hey, Mark, can you save me a spot?’ 'Yeah, that’s fine; give me a 12-pack of beer, make it nice, and we’re all good,’” he said.

Collectively, money from yard parking in the neighborhood around Lambeau Field has paid for everything from mortgages and college to retirement. Prices range from $15 dollars to $50 depending on the location.

Or, that beer Anderson mentioned.

“It’s more of an an ambassador of the community,” he said. “I like to see a lot of people from out of the area park and and just shoot the bull with them a little bit.”

Mark Villers and his wife recently moved to a home just a few blocks from Lambeau. He grew up parking on lawns on game days and has adopted the tradition at the couple’s new home — which they also rent on many game weekends.

“The extra income helps. Groceries for the week or drinks for the game,” he said about parking. “Being a Packers fan my whole life, it’s just been good to be part of the community. Now, being able to live so close, it’s just fun to give people a place to park.”

Like putting on cold weather gear, Jen Livermore and her family from Lincoln, Nebraska, see neighborhood parking as part of the Packers experience.

“You kind of get right in with the neighborhood and the people who live here,” she said. “You kind of get the hometown experience.”