Our Lafountain Street Neighborhood in the 1940’s - Part 3

Fern Jones ran her hair salon out of her home. The Jones lived directly across the street from us (#23). They were an older couple and had remodeled and enclosed the front porch to accommodate her shop. Fern babysat Don and I a couple times. I remember it mostly because I had a nightmare while staying there. It was particularly disturbing because of its amorphous character. There was no form, no scene, no monster - nothing I could describe more than a rhythmic beat of pure evil. It haunted me for years.

The gas station (#20) was on the corner of North and Lafountain, and the Church sat across North Street from it. There were two houses between the Jones’ and the gas station, the old Milner place (#22) and the Teel’s (#21). Don Teel lived next to the gas station. He was a middle aged bachelor that lived with his mother in a small white house. Don was a mild mannered man who worked at one of the factories. He belonged to the Moose Lodge and I often saw him at the old lodge on Taylor Street. I remember that he always wore a suit, and was very polite, but his life seemed rather narrow and limited to me. He was probably about mom and dad’s age, maybe a bit older. I don’t know if he ever married after his mother died.

The grocery stores were located on opposite diagonal corners of our block. Whitaker’s grocery was at the corner of Broadway and Lafountain (#8 ). His was a one story building, long and narrow, facing Broadway. Similar to other groceries of the time, it offered a small selection of canned foods, a refrigerated display-counter of fresh meat, fresh vegetables, milk, candy, and bread (White bread was the only type available.).

Tyce and Blanche ran the other grocery. I no longer remember their last name. They lived above the grocery - on the corner of North and Apperson Way (#14) . The two story building facing North Street is one of the few still standing. Pucketts Pie Shop occupied it in 2008. I don’t know much about Tyce and Blanche. They were older than Mom and Dad - maybe in their forties, and there was never mention of them having children. Blanche committed suicide (shot herself) the year before we moved. I don’t know how long Tyce kept the store or what happened to him. We divided our business equally between the two stores. I know we ran a tab at Tyce’s because I went in there once, bought a great big Hershey bar, the 25 cent size, and told him to put it on the bill. I ate as much as I could before tossing the remainder up into the loft while riding my bike through Milner’s timber barn. It never occurred to me that I might wrap and stash it somewhere to enjoy later. I guess I felt guilty and wanted to get rid of the incriminating evidence.
GO TO: Part 4