Friday, July 1, 2011

Letters and Hopes

A letter from Harry Rigby to his in-laws, the Krungs

By I series of different events, Charity came into possesion of a old box of letters and pictures. She thought they were interesting but didn't really pay a lot of attention to them. Then this morning she had pulled them out and was looking at them again. I happened see her looking through the letters and asked her what they said. When She told me she couldn't read most of the hand writing, I promptly sat down and started reading them out loud.


The first letter I read was from a man named Harry C. Rigby to, what I guessed, were his in-laws, Mr ans Mrs. Krung. He talked of a promotion to a technician of forth grade, which he explained was like a sergeant. Seeing this and the date of 1944 on the letter we both easily guessed he was a soldier in World War II. He continued on, congratulating the couple on their 20th wedding anniversary, missing their cooked ham, and sending his greeting to his grandmother and friends. He also thanked them and his wife for their loving letters of encouragement and hoped to write more and hear from them soon.

Harry Rigby (possibly in France)
While I had been reading, Charity had continued going through the contents of the box. When I looked up from finishing the first letter, she had a hand full of more letters to and from Harry and what we believe to be pictures of Harry himself.
The other letters included post cards to his wife from France, Yellow Stone and Akron. And a baby card with the name James Harry on it, who we believe to be his son.
After reading his letters and possibly seeing pictures of him, I really wanted to find out if Harry Rigby was still alive and write to him if he was. Just like any kid in my generation, I immediately turned to Google. My search was rewarding. He's 94 years old, but if he's still alive, I was able to find his address. He doesn't live that far from me and Charity and we plan to write and maybe even visit him if we find him still living. We have also located someone named James Harry Rigby who may possibly be his son. We also plan to write him and see if they are related.

It's definately the beginnings of a Adventure to the Past.