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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Saturday

There weren't many letters or packages today but I did manage to get one from you dated November 3rd. Gee whiz, that was too bad that the birthday greeting to Aunty Florence did not come photographed. That pencil is so smudgy that it will never last like that whereas a V-mail photograph would have preserved it. Then too, the V-mail cuts the size down and in doing so it hides some of the poorer parts of a drawing. Jack Molyneaux told me to trace over it in ink but I thought I would spoil it by doing that.

I've heard about that complaining too that the Xmas packages were arriving away ahead of Christmas time. Perhaps you noticed that when I wrote to some people thanking them for the gifts, I mentioned that even though the gifts came in November a full two months away from Christmas, we couldn't tell the difference here between Christmas and the Fourth of July if we didn't have a calendar. It is the spirit of the thing that counts and the problem which the Army faced in transporting all those packages must be taken into consideration. It is a lucky thing that the people were allowed to send packages in the first place so why should they worry about the minor item as to the time of delivery. Jack says the same thing will happen to the Christmas cards and that many of them will be getting home weeks before Christmas.

I probably will not be able to tell you about the details of the latest idea which occurred to me on the job because technically speaking it would be discussing military operations and would be within the limits of censorship. But to give you a general idea of what I have been working on is undoubtedly permissible. You recall that only yesterday I wrote and told you that I would have to do my payroll over again. Well, as I was checking it today, to see if I had made any errors in it before I attempted to retype it. It dawned on me that now I could copy the payrolls from this no good copy every month and better yet I could fix up a card system such as we used down in Rathborne's payroll department where each person had an individual card for his payroll statistics. If the idea works and the various details iron themselves out, I could cut the time it takes to make up a payroll from a day or two days down to a mere four hours or less. Its going to take quite a lot of working to get it going but I hope to have it done by the time we get around to making December's payroll and I can give you a report on whether it worked or not.

Incidentally, I did not finish checking over the old copy and I still have to retype the entire thing. I will do that sometime tomorrow and since I intend going to bed early this evening, there will not be much writing to anybody else for a day or so.

Jack Molyneaux is sending out the remaining religious Christmas cards one by one so you can know that that was one gift which has been put to immediate and definite use.

I haven't had a chance to read the three Daily Newses as yet and on top of them John Edie tells me that he has four Chicago Timeses which I can read.

By the way, all by myself, I started planning a show for Company A to present two weeks from now. I talked a bit to Lt. Weisman about it and he said to go right ahead. Then, by gosh, if I don't sit right across from one of the fellows whom I thought would be good to have in it. I mentioned the fact to him and he comes right back at me that he too had been planning a show. Many of the things we thought of were identical and by bringing our two heads together we believe that our Company might be able to put on a show which will rival the best that has been put forth yet by any company. Tomorrow morning we are going to see about putting the plan into definite form and to see if we can get hold of the performers. It is to be a musical show more or less.

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

The letter which I wrote to Anita the other night was returned to me this morning by Lt. Podelwitz. It will have to be rewritten because in one section of the letter I used stronger language than ordinary in expressing my disapproval of something and such derogatory remarks are censorable. I haven't had time to rewrite it and it wasn't such a good letter anyway so it will have to wait for me to get into the mood again.

The show for this evening was "Pied Piper" with Monty Wooley. It was a fairly good picture but nothing to rave about. Wooley was good but the role kept him toned down quite a bit from his ordinary self. Everything went wrong with the film tonight and at one time Lt. Yantis, Gordon, the new operator and myself all had our finger in the pie. The fellow had made the same mistake which I had made a few days ago in that I put the film on the reel in such a way that it ran backwards into the machine but had no affect on the proper showing of the show. However, the new fellow had spliced two reels together to have a combined reel and when we hit the second it had been wound correctly and as a result, the picture was upside down.

At another time we had a bit of difficulty in that the sound came on but no picture. We turned the machine off thinking that the lamp was burned out but such was not the case. We checked over the possible causes for the trouble in less time than it takes to tell about it and finally came to the conclusion that we had run into a dark spot which just didn't have any picture on it. Gordon wasn't so sure that was the trouble but I told him to go ahead and run the machine. It ran for a short while with sound only and then, suddenly, as it had gone off, the picture flashed on once more.

I've been racing thru these two letters so that I could get to bed by ten o'clock but Tommy Campbell breezed into the office just now and I'm beginning to lose confidence in my ability to get it out per schedule now. In case my thread of thought wanders please realize that I am trying to concentrate on this even though I may have an outside distraction.

Whew, but my hair is like a bush on top of my head. I meant to get the haircut today but that was impossible. The barber isn't open on Sunday so it will have to wait now until Monday.

You know, I haven't gone swimming ever since that day I got the cramp in my leg. I want to go but somehow, I can't seem to work up the urge and I usually end up by going to the showers instead.

The moon was so bright this evening during the show that the shadow of the lights which we have strung over the stage area, were cast right onto the screen and they were very noticeable. In fact, because the moon was so bright it had the affect of making the picture seem rather dim.

The South Pacific moon seems to be permanently bright when there aren't any clouds. Larry and I were discussing that phenomenon last night and couldn't quite understand why that should be so. It just occurred to me that perhaps since the ocean breezes sweep right over the islands, they keep the air clean and fresh excepting when there are clouds. The city air, however, is filled with soot, smoke, fog and the like and nothing can be swept in to replace it but more soot, smoke and fog. Without those foreign elements in the air there should be a decided difference in the lunar intensity.

The officers are having a party up on their hill this evening and the most amazing thing happened. One of the officer's cars became stranded half way up the hill when the show was over because so many fellows swarmed out onto the roadway. There were two nurses inside the vehicle and I was amazed to find that the one nurse was the same nurse who had been escorted by one of our Captains back at that dance in Oregon at which I was a waiter. I guess they are kind of sweet on each other so it's a lucky break for this Captain, eh?

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman