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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Saturday

I've been reamed, taken to the cleaners or whatever else you might want to call it. Just after payday last month I bought two haircut tickets so that no matter if I went broke before the following payday, I would have the necessary funds put away for the haircut. Imagine my surprise today when I checked to see if I still have the second ticket before stepping into the barber shop and discovered that it wasn't a haircut ticket at all but a ticket good for one pressing at the tailor shop! There is a dime difference in the price of the two tickets so it doesn't matter much as far as that goes.

One good thing about having the Daily News coming in is that on days when there are no V-mail letters there is a chance that the paper will come in. Today was such a day and the paper that arrived was the 29th or a day previous to the one I received two days ago.

The picture for this evening is "Voice of Terror" with Basil Rathbone and I am to be the operator. It is a good thing we got that picture instead of the one we were scheduled to show. "Idaho" was scheduled for the third time which would make four times that I and others would have seen the thing.

Thomas Campbell and I were called into the S-3section today and asked to translate a report written in French. Since these natives sling the lingo in such a way that they fill up their reports with idiomatic language and words which aren't in the dictionary, we have taken to developing a very free and rapid translation. Whereas on previous translations of reports we would take anywhere from one hour to three hours to finish, we now bang it out in about fifteen minutes. Of course, it is a very loose version and its purpose is just to discover what the writer had meant to say. Of course, all this happens with our French dictionaries open in front of us and sometimes I wonder if a person who never had a bit of French couldn't do just as well with all the words we have to look up.

The latest issue of the Yank magazine describes some of the fighting engineers in Italy and it seems the names mentioned are all of fellows that the old soldiers like Jack know. They say a little prayer of thanks every time they read about what their old buddies are going thru. It seems that they are more than happy not to be with those fellows right now especially when the papers and magazines start playing up how hot and heavy the fighting is on the Italian front.

Work has been comparatively slack at the office for the past week but it will only balance off the heavy duty we will be doing starting Monday of next week and lasting for the next two weeks as the payroll and other musts will be coming up.

My leg is fully recovered from the after effects of the cramp and I'm ready to go in swimming once again. And the elbow, too, has just about lost that tender feeling which didn't feel good at all.

The reason for the puppy not being delivered was that the fellow in Company F decided that they should remain with their mother for another week or so before being let out into the cruel world on their own. Speaking of little pups and things, reminds me that we saw a very small colt out in the field today trotting alongside its Mother. Someone told us that a colt's legs never grow any longer than they are during the first three weeks.

Lt Yantis just returned from town and says that tomorrow's movie will be a reshowing of "Woman of the Year". I'm glad I'm taking the movie tonight because that way I will not have to go see the thing again tomorrow night even if it is a good picture.

I've finished reading all the articles in this month's Reader Digest already. To my surprise I found that I have been saving them for six months. I'll have to do a little house cleaning and get rid of a lot of things like that which I have been saving. They just take up a lot of room.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman