Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
August 11, 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
My job as assistant movie projector operator is proving highly advantageous to you; that is if you call getting two letters from me instead of one an advantage. I write or try to write one before quitting work for the day just before suppertime and then if I have the opportunity, and I usually have found I have, to do so, I write another at night. Of course other people are being hurt by this system. It doesn't take very long to write a letter to you because I can tell you everything I want to without caring how it is phrased or that I may be saying the wrong thing. With other letters a careful wording is usually in order. And then too, so many more things are of interest to us alone which another person would not understand.
Nevertheless, it is not ten-thirty and Lt Yantis and I just got back from showing "Slightly Dangerous" with Lana Turner at another outfit quite a distance from our camp. We had quite an evening as the film jumped the track on one occasion and was halted several times because their generators produced a varying voltage. I enjoyed the picture even though I had seen it before. Who wouldn't enjoy a picture with Lana Turner. These times I could notice her acting ability a bit more than the first time and she isn't as bad of an actor as some people say.
On the way back from the other place Lt Yantis and I talked about what the speaker had told us about the island during his lecture last night. Lt Yantis was not there for it so I retold almost all of it that I could remember. The fellow sure did tell a great deal because I just rambled on and on with information and I found myself so interested in the retelling of it that I could have kept on talking all night long. The result is that I am going to write the whole business down and then send you what I can of it and the rest I will save to tell you about when I get home.
It was a novel experience to visit another outfit and I will have it all to myself this Friday night when Lt Yantis will have to go into town to go to school. It will be a problem to running the machine and trying to keep up the voltage at the same time. This evening it was rather a simple task because I watched the machine while he attended to the latter detail.
I guess I ate just a bit too many candy bars today because at the present time I am not feeling well physically --- mostly centered in the stomach. I think I set an all time high for even myself as I downed close to six or seven in the morning and about four or five in the afternoon.
The payroll never did get started today although I did have a chance to begin it at about three o'clock in the afternoon. At that time I would have just been able to get one or two pages done so I finished up with some other work. The whole morning was taken up with something which ordinarily takes only ten to fifteen minutes but a great many changes and alterations had to be made and they dug a great bite out of today's working day.
We are reaching the deadline on when the payroll will have to be in so tomorrow, the 12th, and the next day, the 13th. will have to see the thing begun and finished. There's a job which can be gotten out quickly if only a person can give it his undivided attention. Six hours of intense concentration should be sufficient for any ordinary payroll but under conditions as they are, two days are usually necessary.
I noticed that the box in which my watch was sent in was once used by me to keep golf balls in. I still had a price mark written in blue pencil saying 3 for 80¢ or something like that. And that watch is still going. Moreover it looks just as if it always belonged on my wrist.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman