Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
August 14, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara,

The show was over about 8:30 and I had plenty of time to write but I began reading magazines and here it is just fifteen minutes before eleven and I am beginning this letter. The show went off fairly well but not as good as I would have liked it to have gone off. For one thing, it was out of focus when I first turned it on so I had to stop the machine immediately and adjust it. A stop like this is usually not thought of by the men because they have not had time to become interested in the film. The ending was a bit sloppy when I turned off the machine and turned on the phonograph music full blast. I did not give it that smooth finish in dying out the movie sound and slowly bringing out the record playing.

Lt. Yantis is going to run the movie tomorrow night and the following night also and I will take over once again Tuesday night when he attends school in town. After the show Molyneaux and his buddies stopped in the Projection Booth for a short while to take a look at the pretty little set up we have.

Say, the payroll was in the Orderly Room all the time from four to five this afternoon and I had been given to understand that it was still with Lt. London. If I had known that, I could have gotten the entire payroll completed then and there. As it is I will have to worry about it tomorrow. Say, another thing I forgot to mention is that tomorrow, my Dad's birthday, is also the birthday of the regiment and we are having a day off. In fact this evening every soldier was given a birthday present to celebrate with. The standard gift was 3 cokes and 3 beers but those who like their beer ended up with six beers and those who prefer coke ended up with six cokes. Yes, I had 6 cokes.

The campaign hats I was telling you about are not to be worn with out fatigue clothes and must not be restyled by the soldiers. We must wear them only with our khakis and we must wear them in the style which you have seen on my Dad's old war pictures. Many of the fellows would like to wear them pork-pie fashion or fix it up like a cowboy hat. The idea is alright and the result looks good. The only trouble is that it isn't military and therefore is taboo.

Because I did not get all the work out that I wanted to today, I am going to come to the office tomorrow and fix up several items and also fix up the payroll. After that I am going to type out all that insurance dope I was telling you about. Then I intend to answer at least six letters and if I possibly can get around to doing it, I would like to answer the entire backlog of some ten or twelve letters. Naturally, if I do write that many I will not flood our censor with them all at once. The last time I wrote so many letters it took me a week to get them all thru the mail.

I'll never get tired of telling you that I still enjoy looking down at my wrist and at the watch it is sporting. I think it is the best watch I have ever had yet.

The French books should be arriving soon seeing as how the other two packages have already come. I hope I will have time to study them after having put you thru the trouble of sending them out. I will let you know from time to time just what progress or lack of progress I am making. I know for one thing that my French-English Dictionary has not done me much good for quite a while.

The funniest thing happened in the office today. Lloyd Gunderson, a clerk in the Morning Report and Rations section, and a former Chicagoan and Northwesternite is Swedish, K. K. Kenagy who is Co Clerk for Co C has a Swedish girlfriend and Beaumont's wife is also Swedish. Keeping those facts in mind you can imagine the uproar which occurred when I sailed into the Swedes with a lot of good natured kidding. The three of them, good naturedly, lifted me from my chair and carted me outside to the ashcan and dumped me into it. It was a comedy riot and afforded laugh for the next hour.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman