They met on a blind date in the summer of 1946...the sailor and the beautician.

Three months later, they were wed. 

Wedding Invitation for Clark Gerdes and Ruth Wark.

The Kiss.

Buss and Ruth

Off to the Lincoln Hotel, New York!

On a motorcycle trip from NY to VA.

This blog will be a serial. From 1950 to 1959, my parents corresponded via letters while they were apart, which was often and for long periods of time because of the US Navy. My father, Clark (or known by his nickname, Buss, or by their pet name for him, Battlebrain) was to be stationed in San Diego, and thus began a nine year period of separation of this still newly-married young couple in the 1950's. I know how their life continued, but you, the readers, do not. I will be posting, chronologically, the approximately 329 letters he wrote to his lovely bride, Ruth (or known by their pet name for her, Hammerhead). Through only Buss's letters, we will get a flavor of what life was like for a sometimes lonely sailor aboard ship out in the Pacific or around the world before, during, and following the Korean War. I will also be posting photos of both of them and the subjects about which he wrote. Occasionally, there will be innuendo, double-meaning, and downright risque language in his letters that will make this blog somewhat of a PG-13 rated site--but, after all, they were a young couple apart.

A little background information on Buss and Ruth: Buss was the youngest of three brothers raised on a farm in central Illinois. After graduating high school in 1935, he worked on the family farm for four years until he was finally accepted into the US Navy in the fall of 1939. He served aboard the USS Mississippi prior to and during the entire World War II. Following the War, he was stationed in New York for the recruiting office. It was there where he met Ruth on his friend's blind date in July of 1946. They were married three months later on October 27, 1946, which was Navy Day. He was 29 years old, and she was 24 years old. Ruth, the younger of two daughters, had been raised in a financially comfortable home in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. She was educated only through the eighth grade at which time she attended beauty school in Manhattan. At the time of their serendipidous meeting, she was working in New York as a beautician. Prior to these letters, they had been living in Baldwin, New York and more recently, Philadelphia. They did not have any children at this time.