This photo was taken at Maplewood Cemetery in Anderson, IN. It shows Joanna, Carol and Larry in the back and Tresa and Karl in the front. They are standing behind the grave of their father Charlie’s parents and their grandparents, Karol and Apolonia Rudolf. We can only assume this photo was taken before 1963, which is when Apolonia passed away, because the date is not filled in yet. Most of them never met Karol as he passed away in 1948 when Larry, the second oldest, was only one year old.

This is Larry’s younger sister, Tresa, wearing their father’s postman uniform in January of 1965.

The Indianapolis Colts shrine.

A “tin” man sculpture hanging in Carol’s backyard.

Amelia’s pre-cooked dumplings.

The Thanksgiving turkey that Randy Fite, Carol’s husband, grilled.

Our Thanksgiving feast featuring turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken and dumplings, corn bread and several different pies.

A sample plateful of food. You can expect that there were seconds.

Carol planted this tree in her backyard the year that Larry passed. It’s now 11 years old and thriving with Christmas lights.

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Mary, Amelia’s brother and sister.

Cory and Amelia. You can’t really tell who is the younger one.

Amelia and us, Cory and Jeff.

Jeff and Amelia (Grandma Rudolf).

A picture of Amelia when she was younger. Isn’t she beautiful?

This photo was taken in Lawton, Oklahoma (about 15 miles from Fort Sill), presumably during Larry’s basic training in early 1968. We know this from the phone number from the Radio Cab building in the background.

As many people know, companies frequently use letters in their telephone numbers, now mostly used for 1-800 numbers (COLLECT, SAFE-AUTO, FLOWERS, etc.). Letters, however, used to be used in common numbers.

In the 1920′s, when phone numbers started getting larger, two or three letters were incorporated into the beginning of phone numbers (to replace numbers) to make the numbers easier to remember. The United States used two letters, and the UK used three letters. There were no numbers corresponding to 1 (due to the risk of a false impulse, as phones then used pulses to send out information) and 0 (which was commonly used to dial the operator). For example, if you lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, your number could be CA1-2345. You would tell people your number was Cambridge-12345, and they would know that you only type in the first two letters of the word.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, we are posting a photo of Larry’s National Defense Service Medal and his Vietnam Service Medal.

From Wikipedia:

The National Defense Service Medal was intended to be a “blanket campaign medal” awarded to any member of the United States military who served honorably during a designated time period of which a “national emergency” had been declared.

The [Vietnam Service] medal is issued to recognize military service during the Vietnam War and is authorized to service members in every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

This picture, taken the same day as this one, is marked “11-50″, which we assume means it was taken in November of 1950. That would make Larry almost 3 years old. It must have been a very warm November day for him not to be wearing a jacket. We aren’t exactly sure who the girl next to him is, but we did learn that Amelia used to babysit for a few kids next door who always used to play with Larry and his older sister Joanna, who you can in the background standing next to the Rudolf’s first home (which is now a garage).