Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
July 28, 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Last night the film being shown down the road a bit in another outfit was "Air Force". I saw that picture back in Camp White and did not stay to see it over again.
Well, the electrifying news that Mussolini has exiled himself from his position as leader of the Italian people, has just been spread around. The details are at this writing not available. The fellows all seem to think that now the war is virtually over and they are laughing both at my 1947 prediction and the six year prediction of Secretary Knox. Tell me, are the headlines back home screaming out these news items with extra big headlines or have they been taking it in stride.
I sank myself into debt this morning as I borrowed $2.25 from John T. Edie in order to buy a French-English dictionary. The book sells for $1.00 back in the United States but out here the price has been inflated a bit. I don't know just how much good I will get out of it but it is something I always wanted. It is not as good as the kind Miss Belle suggested that any French student ought to have but it is satisfactory. Now when the grammar and related books come along thru the mails, I will be all set to sit down and re-learn my French. That vocabulary business is one of the drawbacks to reading or speaking a language. No matter how well you know the fundamentals, you are lost if you haven't a sufficient vocabulary to back you up. I remember when I used to read the French novels the most time was spent in looking up words in the glossary. From time to time you will receive these bulletins on how the French is coming along.
It seems that at some time or another during the course of the day either the band or the drum and bugle corps is practicing its numbers and the result is a movie atmosphere where people go about their work to the accompaniment of music.
A big home edition of the "Bulldozer" is to be published this Friday and they have requested that the reporters hand in a terrific amount of items in order to put it over big. The deadline for handing in the news is not far off yet we haven't dug up any dirt yet. Did you receive the last copy of the "Bulldozer" I sent to you? To date you have not mentioned receiving it.
Say, didn't I tell you the other day when Larry and I were sitting on the slope of the hill waiting for the movie to begin, I saw a fellow from Morton Junior College sitting on the boxing platform and talking with a fellow from my company. It was a fellow by the name of Robert Roberts. He was a cartoonist for the annual which Ray and I put out our last year. But I did not go down there to talk to him. Why not? I don't know why I didn't nor did I know that at the time either. Here I was not 100 feet from a fellow who worked on the annual with me, went to the same school for a year with me, went on double dates with Ray and Dotty and knew them quite well and yet I just sat there on the hill and watched him as if we were back in Cicero with our meeting a common occurrence. Now I am left to wonder what outfit he is in and how long he has been here and all that.
It looks as if my nice duckboards are headed for the woodpile within the near future because it will not be long how before we have wooden floors in our tents. Jack Molyneaux had his wooden floor in some time last week. that also means a new clothes rack is in order. It will be the sixth or seventh in the series of clothes racks. The one I have now is dug into the ground about two and a half feet while the kind we will need will be one held up by some sort of base.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman