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Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
July 9, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara,

It is a wonder that this letter is typewritten at all. When I first came in this evening I was side tracked from my purpose by glancing over several new regulations which came out in regards to some of our monthly work. Ralph Pfau, the clerk for Company D, wandered in just about that time and asked me to loan him my typewriter for just a few minutes as he typed up one or two allowances. Then I walked out to listen to Simanoff play the piano in the big tent and I had only placed the typewriter in the case without locking it. When I came back it was in use and I finally dug up this typewriter to get the letter out.

Today I received a letter from you dated June 25 in which you say Dr Kolar is (or rather was) the only person to assure you that you would be hearing from me soon. I imagine that you received my first mail within the next three days after that, right? Well, I will know the answer to that within the next day or so for sure now because John Edie received a letter from his mother and she received one of the letters he wrote aboard the ship. That means that the rest of the letters should have arrived about the same time.

I also received another letter this evening. It was from St. Valentine's church and it contained some kind of advertisement or another about buncos and carnivals which have long since been held. The letter was mailed June 3 and I received it more than a month later. In connection with the length of time it has been taking letters to go and come one of the fellows received a letter today which was mailed in September of last year. It had been addressed to his old outfit before he came to the 353rd on the cadre. From there it must have followed it across the ocean and back again and then across another ocean.

I still have about two hours left this evening before I will hit the hay so I believe I will tackle some of the Army Institute course again. In addition to that I am beginning some more of the Fancy Dan planning which you always laughed at. I am making out a schedule of how often I should do various things and things like that. For instance, one of the items is how many times a week I should go swimming and how often I should wash out my mattress covers which I use as bed sheets. It will even cover how many letters I write a week, how many lessons of the Army Institute I do and how many drinks of water I take out of my canteen every day. The last item was a poor attempt at humour.

As I sit here writing this letter the strains of "Stardust" are floating into the tent. Rizzo is at the piano now. That poor piano doesn't seem to get any rest. For the last two days the band and orchestra have been practicing during the daytime and those two fellows at night. One thing we discovered about Rizzo is that most all of his piano playing is done with chords while Simanoff actually plays the music completely. Both like the semi-classical pieces better than the swing or jazz type of playing.

I'm sorry that this letter has been so abbreviated and uninteresting but there are many things I want to say but can't. Some of the most active days I spend are blank pages as far as letter writing goes. Or perhaps I am being over scrupulous as to what is alright and what isn't.

Anyhow, so-long,

/s/ Roman
Roman