Our Lafountain Street Neighborhood in the 1940’s - Part 6

The Giles’ home at 1214 N. Lafountain was between the McGovern house and Whitaker’s store. Its location is #7 on the satellite photo, but the house shown is a new one. I remember their house as having a lot of traffic. The covered side porch faced Whitaker’s backside and the area between seemed to serve as parking. There was a yard, but I don‘t recall much grass.

I didn't know the number of kids in the family back then. Their ages were spread out, and the family was the largest on the block. I guess there was about seven total. The older siblings, Bill and Fred were well into their teen years and thus didn’t count for much with us. There was a sister named KK - she was somewhere in the middle, and the only female I remember. There were a couple older sisters, Bev and Jean., but I have no memory of them. The two kids in the family that most interested Don and me were Bob and Gerald. Gerald, the youngest in the family, was about a year older than me. He was next to last in the pecking order in our gang - I occupied that lowly position. Bob, a year past Don, was the oldest of our little gang.

Mrs. Margaret Giles, their mother, was a short, heavy set woman. I had limited experience with her, but developed the impression that she was angry much of the time. I expect that unfavorable image was the result of just one incident. She once came down to our end of the block hunting for the boys, had a belt in her hand and grabbed Bob as he tried to skip past her. She pinned him between her thick legs, and swatted him a couple times before he manage to wiggle free to the backside and make his escape. Gerald must have taken the round-about alleyway home.

I have no memory of Mr. Vivian Cloves Giles other than he was slim and of medium height. I barely remember Bill, but Fred, a bit younger, sticks in my mind as the person whose comical exploits continually entertained the Giles family. Gerald and Bob were the dispensers of family legends in the making. Once they were laughing about how Fred had hit a home run in a local softball game, but was called out because he missed second base. The funny part was that he had made the same mistake the week before. Another story was told about Fred joining the Kokomo Police Department and making a career of wrecking police cars.

Bill died in 2005 at 74, Fred passed in 1982 and was about 50 years old. Mr. Giles worked at Delco as a metal polisher until his death in 1957 at 49 years. Mrs. Giles dies in 1963 while living with her daughter, Kay, in Brooklyn, NY. She was 52. Bob lives in Greentown. Gerald moved to Colorado in the 1970s.

Around the corner, on Broadway, lived the last member of our little group. Jim Douglas and his mother, Alice. They occupied an apartment on the top floor of a two story building (#9). They accessed it by way of an outside staircase in the back. The present structure is similar, so it could very well be the same building. Jim might have had a little sister, but I’m not sure of that. Alice seemed young and attractive, but my memory of her is dimmed by sixty years, and her image is no more than a vague reflection.

I was not old enough to be much concerned as to why Jim had no father in the house, nor do I remember any talk. Divorce did happen in those days, and the war had just ended, leaving a number of widows in its wake. Mom liked Alice, and spoke well of her, but I got the impression that she felt sorry for her. They moved about the same time as we did, and I don’t remember seeing them again. I heard that Jim was working as the YMCA Athletic Director in Indianapolis.

The Artis were the only negro family on the block (See: A kid's life in the 1940's - Prejudice). They lived next to Jim and Alice Douglas on Broadway. Their house was in the middle of the block next to the alley (#10). They lived on the opposite end of the block, and I was not allowed beyond Pennington’s barber pole in the early days of my existence, so I didn’t know them very well. I remember there being two or three girls in the family. I recall little about them other than they possessed a certain noble bearing, though I'm at a loss to know how I could identify that characteristic at such a tender age. My good opinion could probably be ascribed to positive talk I heard from others on the block.

A small cabin sat across the alley from the Artis place (#11). There is an old shed presently on the site, and it is about the same size as the one in the 1940s. The building was no more than eight feet wide and a dozen long, but an old lady lived there. I don’t know how long she had been there, we never saw her outside, and I always believed she died shortly after we discovered her presence.

I remember the cabin as having a small front porch and a window on the alley side. There was no apparent bath room, only a bed across the back and maybe a chair. She may have had relatives in a nearby house, but we knew of none. Bob and Gerald Giles told Don and I about her and took us to the window to look in. The room was neat and appeared clean. The old lady was lying on her back in bed. She wore a nightgown, with lacing around her neck. The bedspread or blanket covered most of her body. She did not move. I remember that her hair was neatly combed, and she seemed to be positioned in an orderly way - as on a death bed. We went back maybe one more time. She was in the same position. After that the cabin was empty. We never saw her again.