Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
July 18,1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
I have received your letter of July 6, 1945. The ODB is right on the dot with the dough every month, aren't they? Their slogan is "Get 'em paid" because if the folks at home did not receive the money on time it would ruin the home morale and that in turn wouldn't help the soldier at the front to know that conditions were bad back home.
Didn't I follow up that letter in telling you about the Pond's tissue with another telling you that I bought a box? I clean out my mess kit with the tissues, wrap my fork and spoon in a few sheets, use other sheets as emergency handkerchiefs and all in all make good use of them.
You know that my ritziness in buying pound boxes of candy is no more. But during the time that I was buying candy and otherwise wasting my money, a pound box would last all of a half hour if you stretched it out. That is one thing which disappears in a big hurry no matter if only one person or a dozen are helping to eat it up.
So Senor Gonzalez is starting to eat candy bars too. I don't know what makes me think this but I believe that in a short while he will be eating them three at a time. Towards the end it was getting so that I myself could eat six candy bars at one sitting and an hour or so later go back for more.
I believe it was on the fifteenth of July that I mentioned Ulysses Reder in my letter and now comes your letter saying that on the fourteenth he went down for his physical examination at the draft board. When it was July 15 here, he was probably at the point of knowing whether he was a soldier or would continue to be a civilian. Do you actually mean to say that he was afraid of passing the exam?
You have never mentioned anything more about that incident which occurred during the first week or so of May. Has any action been taken yet? And has anymore been written in the paper?
You know something...? On Sundays, more than any other day I am recalled back to Cicero in the summertime. I almost have that urge to pick up a set of golf clubs and ride out to Columbus Park. I guess it was just one of those lucky things that we were able to play golf in Oregon during the late winter and early spring. At least the year will not have gone by without getting in a few games.
Did I ever tell you how I use the water clogs with Mrs. Boyer and Bob gave to me before I left last November? I take them swimming with me. In the first place they keep my feet from becoming muddy when I get out of the water and put on my clothes. In the second place the bed of the river is filled with quite a few rocks and it is not comfortable walking on them without the protection of the wooden sandals. The other day when we were in swimming and bathing we decided to go to the other side where the bank forms more of a beach instead of the drop we have on our side of the river. I held the two clogs and my case of soap in my left hand while I swam across the river with my right arm doing all the work.
I value that little soap container not only for its usefulness but for its sentimental-ness. We were both down in the dime store on Washington and State when we bought it for me to use in the Army. I've seen only one other exactly like it in color and the fellow bought it in the very same place during that very same two week period while he was shopping with his wife. Another article which I have found very useful and which has a different twist to its value is the metal mirror which we think my dad used in the last war. Ask him if he did?
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman