Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
August 24, 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Well, well, well, and well. This army is getting to be alright. Every morning starts off with Mersing and I carrying on a running conversation while trying to get that last bit of tiredness out of our bones by remaining huddled up underneath the blankets. Then this morning Burkard said there was to be no Reveille. That sounded impossible and hard to believe but we were willing to take him at his word. John Edie on the other hand had to make sure as he acted as our scout and came back with the good news. That way we rested for another 30 to 45 minutes until breakfast time, believe it or not, a messenger was sent from tent to tent saying that breakfast was being served. Either somebody was kidding us along or else we dreamed it up because that isn't the army.
The event of the day was the final transfer coming through on our friend Reuben B. Blumenfeld. As of Thursday we will no longer have him around our regiment. He will work in town with the Judge Advocate General of the island. There is some speculation going on now as to which one of us will get back to the states first. We figure that when the war is over he will have to remain until all temporary troops have been sent back home and first then will he pull up his stakes from his job with the Island Offices. I do not know what will turn up over it but we have made tentative dates to meet again on some future Sundays.
An after effect of that cowboy picture which we saw Sunday is still noticeable in that we repeat choice phrases from the script every once in a while. For instance, we will drawl out, "Reckon as how you're wrong, Montany" or "You all can't fence in open range, Pally" and "We gotta get these critters to water". Just let one fellow in a crowd start cowboy talk and soon the whole gang is going at it two-forty.
So Anna is superstitious. That reminds me of the way Mr Vintera scared himself into dying because there were two deaths among his neighbors and because he was not in the best of health, he was certain that he would be the next. I don't know why it is but every so often you hear of a Pokorny dying. That side of your family must really have propagated itself in order to have so many of them to die.
I'm glad to hear the situation is getting somewhat organized and that Uncle Jack has decided to remain at home. That is where he belongs, isn't it? And he's a good uncle too.
You ask several questions about the movie machine but I believe I have answered them in previous letters. It is quite possible to enjoy the movies while showing them. In fact one can become too interested in the movie and not remember the machine until the end of a reel. At first I couldn't concentrate on the film very much but now running the machine usually goes along smoothly excepting such incidents as this evening. I enjoyed Uncle Jack's two page V-mail letter very much but I'm afraid there isn't going to be sufficient time left this evening to answer them. It also may be harder to write to him now that I know he has access to information about my doings thru you. His comments on just what he did and where he visited in his first days back home were just what I had been wanting to hear. And I got a kick out of the way he looked over the "mountain of books" a certain young fellow had accumulated. That is one reason why I'm glad he is back home again. If chance should have it that I do not return home, at least my books will be in worthwhile hands and even now someone can be getting some value from them. Remember when we used to spend an evening or two discussing the eventual fate of that miniature library of mine?
I've been feeling like a regular chatter box this evening and could probably go on and on writing these letters but that old bed time is stepping in to call it quits for today.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman