Our Lafountain Street Neighborhood in the 1940’s - Part 1

Lafountain Street was lined on both sides with young maple trees in the 1940’s. They formed a canopy of shade covering the whole street, and added an inviting friendliness to our block. The street design isn’t seen much any more, where the sidewalk is six to eight feet from the curb with trees growing in the grassy strip between. I don’t remember a whole lot of grass growing in that strip - too much shade. I visited the old neighborhood in August of 2008. Many of the original houses are missing, most of the old trees have been removed, and the canopy is gone. The character of the street is less for it.

I “walked” around the block by using Google Street View, and looked at the various structures. I notice how much it has changed in the sixty years since I left. Nearly half the buildings have been demolished. New ones replace most, but some lots stand empty, and sites, vacant in my youth, have been built on. The older houses that remain have all been remodeled. Most had covered porches in my day. They were open then but have now been enclosed or removed. Our old house had a covered porch opening onto the alley Its been removed entirely. The front porch, which was covered and open, is now enclosed. The old garage has been replaced.. I would not recognize it as the same place. I copied a Google satellite photo of the old city block, numbered lots and buildings, and marked an “X” on buildings that did not exist when I lived there. Three of the four houses on Apperson Way (It was called Kennedy Street in those days) lay in the southeast corner of the block and appear to be the same, but I never knew the occupants so I placed a (?) on those buildings.

A T-shaped alley, with the crossed-T going between Apperson Way and Lafountain, passed on the north side of our house (#1 on satellite photo). The alley is paved now but was covered with black cinders back then. Don Brunk and his mother Gladys lived across the alley from us. Their house (#19) was similar to the Hundley‘s (#5) in that it had a long side porch. It faced the alley, and was right across from our small side porch, so we saw a lot of each other. My brother, Don, swore that he got up one night and saw a man sitting on the ridge top of the Brunk house. He said the guy was facing the alley, right across from our side porch, his feet planted on the angled roof, his arms resting on his knees - just looking across at our house. Don did a little sleep walking in those days, so the grownups were inclined to think it was a dream, but he insisted it was too real to be one.

Don Brunk was a skinny guy with thin hair combed straight back. He was Mom and Dad’s age, but seemed older than his years. I thought of him as being Gladys’ husband for a while. There was an edginess about Don. He served in North Africa during the early part of the war, and probably saw action in Europe through much of the rest of it. Few veterans that I knew had a whole lot to say about their experiences in the war - Don Brunk was no exception. I can’t say for certain whether he had a job. He probably did, but seemed to be around the house a lot. I remember that he often sat and talked to Mom and Grandma. Maybe he needed to. I don’t remember much about Gladys Brunk. She died in 1967. Don Brunk passed in 1991 at 77.
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