Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
14 October 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Thursday
I started writing the first letter to you today in the afternoon but Nyalka asked me to go swimming with him and I didn't get a chance to finish it. As a result I am starting all over again at 7:00 PM in the evening. We had about the best time we ever have had swimming yet. The water was the warmest it had ever been too. I'll trade a good swim like that any day instead of having just a shower.
This last clothes washing incident of mine has hit a bog. Monday morning which as a general rule is wash day saw me start to soak my clothes. As you know Mersing came to the office to have me go down to finance with him and I never did get to the washing again. Ever since that day the clothes have been soaking in the big tin can outside the tent door. Mersing keeps saying that they will rot. If Gordon takes the movies up the Island tomorrow night, I think I will have a chance to get at them once again. If not then, I will have to wait until Sunday or Monday. Do you know they are just getting clean by soaking so long!
I was determined not to go to the movies tonight when I found out it was a Hopalong Cassidy Picture but somebody told me that it is about the highest grade of cowboy picture on the market today; so I guess I'll meander over there when this letter is done and take a look see. Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom is not going to show up tonight as planned. We don't know the reason for the sudden cancellation of the performance. In addition to that disappointment we also were let down by Company F on the vaudeville end of things. As a result only the band will perform before the show starts. They still have about twenty minutes to play before the show starts so I will have ample time to finish this V-mail form. They must be cutting the notes good tonight because I can hear the crowd roaring from here.
I received your letter of Sunday the 3rd this afternoon. Only twelve or so letters came in all day and I was one of the lucky ones to get a V-mail. Jack Molyneaux and I have been keeping tab of the letters we received this week and so far he is one up on me but he has missed two days in a row while I have only missed one. That is too bad about Jennie breaking a couple of ribs. Remember the time Uncle Joe broke a rib? It sure did lay him up for a spell and he didn't seem to be any too comfortable during that period; therefore, I can well imagine what Jennie has been going thru. She probably was too miserable to write you a letter telling you about it.
By the way, today marks an anniversary less a month for me. Just one month short of a year ago, the Army got hold of me. This is about the first time since being on the Island that I have commemorated the date. Back in the States those first few months I made that remark right on the head as the month would roll around. One thing, though, it seems that the time which has passed since being overseas has seemed relatively short.
The work has been buzzing along at a good clip today and the morning was over before we knew it. Lt Yantis said that my errorless payroll for this month was the first one he had ever signed and I had to tell him that that also was the first errorless payroll I ever did. A payroll without a typographical error is like a no-hit ball game, they are few and far between. I remember Jack had one in Camp White. That month the entire staff was on the ball and I don't think any one clerk had more than four errors in all. That is a far cry from our first payroll when we arrived on this Island. It was a lulu with so many pages that we could hardly clip it together and so many errors that we didn't care to joke about the thing.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman