Rudie was a demented man, though few were aware of just how crazed he was. Even now, years after his death, very few are aware that living right in their back yard was a crazy man. Literally! Rudie literally lived in the backyards of his neighbors.
Sure, Rudie had a proper house of his own, right at 52 Maple Street, near where the pharmacy is today. But Rudie spent very little time at his own home. Usually, he could be found in any one of the dozens of backyards of his neighbors - if anyone had actually ever looked for him. Which they didn't.
Rudie was, for all intents and purposes, harmless in that he never would cause physical harm to anyone he ever met or had not yet met. No, Rudie's true dementia came out in his obsessions with other people's lives. Though today we would call him a voyeur, in his day, they would have called him a Peeping Tom. That is, if anyone had ever caught him in the act. There were those who speculated, even publicly, but they were usually met with disbelief.
The culmination of Rudie's obsession with people's lives would usually come to a paramount when he would work up the nerve to enter someone else's home. It wasn’t necessary for the inhabitants to not be home, Rudie entered homes as he lived much of his life: quietly. While inside, he would usually play with various items, sit in most chairs, and ultimately photograph himself in the home.
He developed the pictures himself in a rather sophisticated color dark room in his basement. After development, he would place the photo in a corresponding envelope with the family's name and address written on the envelope.
Rudie died quietly and alone. At the reading of his will, no one attended, but the executor was instructed to find the envelopes in a box underneath his stairs, stamp the envelopes, and place them in the mail without question or investigation. He did just that and on the following Wednesday afternoon dozens of families received envelopes containing a photograph of a jolly stranger in their own home.
