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

Dear Aunty Clara,

No letter today. The mail service is so good that one pouts when one doesn't get a letter. And you only get one letter today because I am not running the machine this evening. The busier I am the more time I devote to writing. That is one of life's paradoxes. I stayed for the band concert this evening and a good portion of the show. It is the same show we played at the other outfit last night. I just can't seem to tire of it.

Incidentally, I went up to this boy Steinhauser and thanked him for doing me a good turn unknowingly. After I thanked him I explained just what had happened and related the incident you mentioned to me. I didn't think he knew Myrtle at all but evidently he was quite familiar with her because he recalled her instantly. The fact of the matter is that he received a letter from her since arriving here. And he said right off the bat that she came from either Cicero or Berwyn. To top that off he told me that before he worked at the Great Lakes Mortgage he had worked in the Chicago Title and Trust! Just to make the story a bit more amusing and interesting he told me that Wally Moeller (the fellow I met on the train from Camp Grant) worked in the next room at Chicago Title yet they never knew or recognized each other until they began comparing notes in the H&S Company barracks back in Camp White. Isn't this a small world? By the way, this is how I ran across the lad. He is a truck driver and drives the PX truck. This morning he was waiting in back of the PX when we came up to buy some candy and I just started right in talking to him.

The candy bars may have laid me low last night but I came right back for more today and so far have noticed no ill effects. I started off the morning right without any breakfast and substituting five Tangos in its place. My desk is now practically cleaned out of candy bars.

I have payroll woes and I don't even like bringing up the subject. Bright and early this morning I figured out a time schedule which would, if it worked out, enable me to have the payroll completed during the period of six hours. Unfortunately, as I finished the first page I was interrupted. The interruption threw me off kilter and I did the second page over about four times. No typographical errors were involved. They were those devious and hidden errors which are the bane of a Company Clerk. They are the errors which if not corrected, would prevent a man from receiving his full pay or maybe none at all or maybe too much. Nevertheless, after having solved that problem my patience had reached a limit and I made mechanical mistakes which again necessitates the retyping of the pages. The jitters seemed to be catching and soon every clerk in the Personnel Section was bemoaning his fate etcetera ad infinatum. Even the great Jack Molyneaux who was on his very last page "blew up" and couldn't do that last page perfect to save his soul. The toss up of the entire situation is that the payroll is not done and time is now growing short indeed in which to do it in. After this letter I intend to see if I can't do a page or so.

The timepiece is still keeping excellent time. It ticks so quietly that I can't hear it run.

The latest news from Lt Yantis is that I will have to run the show both tomorrow evening and Saturday night because he will be in town on business. Therefore, from the looks of things, it will not be until Sunday, if then, that I will have the opportunity to send a thank you note to the Klicks and, incidentally, one to the Victory Club Members of Block Number So-and-so.

Did I mention to you that Ray A. Gradler has given up the job of bugling? The feeling was mutual all around --- he was glad to quit, the company was glad to get him and the Administration was glad to see him go. It looks as if he will go from bugler to truck driver.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman