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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Well! And well, again. For three straight days now I have received two letters a day from you. It sure is swell when they come like that. Today's letters were the ones dated the 30th and 31st of July. I received a birthday card from my Dad, Rose and Rosana today with a money order in it for $5.

You told me in the letter of the 30th about your telephone conversation with Dr. Kolar and not thirty minutes before reading your letter I had thought of dropping him a line. You see, just before supper this evening we had our teeth examined by the Regimental Dentists. When I saw that today was the day for examining them, I rushed back to my tent and gave them a good brushing. That way in case there were any cavities they would be able to spot them more easily. As I sat in the chair they had put up outside the mess hall I was as unconcerned as could be. In a way I was hoping I would be classified either Nos. 2 or 3 because then I would get some dental attention but then again I knew I would like a Class 4 rating which means they are still perfect. First the dentist asked me if I had had any teeth troubling me and of course I hadn't. Then after a fairly good look over (they don't use the pick) he said I was Class 4 and needed no dental work. That is another good mark in the books for Dr. Kolar for fixing them up so good in the first place. It is a wonderful feeling to know that the teeth in your mouth are in good condition. Just think how terrible they were in the pre-Kolar years.

I still haven't received the cablegram which was supposed to come on or before my birthday. We might as well give it up for lost.

It was good news to hear that the check finally arrived even though it did come four days too late. I guess the only way to get money home any faster is to send it by money order in an air-mail envelope and hope it goes home by air. The advantage to this system is that there probably would never be any trouble of the check being lost enroute because you say it is made up in San Francisco; whereas a money order could be lost and it would take a lot of trouble getting the money back again.

So I made you dream of castles on the mountains with beams of light streaming out of the windows? Well, the moon over the mountain was just as pretty and almost as weird of a sight.

And what was the best news of all was to know that Myrtle Reed came through with that good news. It is a relief to me to know that your mind is at rest instead of forever being in doubt as to just what the scare was. When I read that Myrtle had finally found out the truth, it made me feel glad all over and I just kept rereading and rereading it. It may seem to be a strange reaction but I must have sat on my cot for about five minutes just wearing a silly looking smile on my face.

Do you want to know something? Every once in a while my Dad comes out with a remark which he knows little or nothing about and says it for a fact. He gets a lot of people to believe him when all along it is just a lot of baloney. For instance, in your letter you tell me about his telling you just how the soldiers do things in this war and how the Army carries on. All I can say is that he is like the old 30-year man who can tell you what the so-called old Army was like but they don't know beans about the present situation.

By this time you already know that Ray and Betty both thought up that poem. It was clever and would be a good one to print in the Morton Junior College Emblem (the semi-annual literary magazine) as a contribution from the alumni. Both Raymond and Betty were in the Creative Rhetoric class at school which was reserved for those individuals who seemed to have a special talent for writing, etcetera.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman