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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Wednesday

This letter is being written at eight o'clock in the evening and is the first one of the day. The reason why I didn't write at four to five was because of crossword puzzles. Yes, the fellows here have gone over the deep end about crosswords and it so happened that I have been clipping them out of the Daily Newses so I started in on the patternless one just at four o'clock and quarter to five rolled by before I tossed it aside. There was no time for a letter then before supper.

The last seven days have been the worst as far as mail is concerned during this entire month. Today was the third day in the week that I did not receive mail. Even at my worst in the mail situation here, it never comes close to yours because I get mine delivered on Sunday and you seem to miss not only the week end but several days during the course of the week.

By the way, there hasn't been any rehearsal tonight because the entire company was busy building up their tents in preparation to putting in doors and screening all the way around. We did have a go-over scheduled for 7 bells and when Lt Weisman heard that there wasn't going to be anything, he said that we wouldn't go on this week. To make matters worse, Lt Carrozza heard of the fact that we didn't rehearse and he became rather peeved thinking it was somebody's fault. The truth of the matter is the Colonel has instructed the company to limit the show to four sets only so we would have had to change the program anyway.

It seems as if we are going put on the feed bag tomorrow with a regular Thanksgiving dinner. It will have to go some to beat the dishes we got last Thanksgiving and Christmas. It looks as if ice cream, cigarettes, coca cola and beer are all going to be part of the menu. To top things off we are going to have the pie of all pies, none other than good old pumpkin pie. They were already baking them in a special oven tonight when we went in to eat and they sure did look good.

You know, it was just a year ago Thanksgiving day that we worked our first overtime day in the office as the remaining shipment of new men entered the regiment and we had to sort out all their cards and get them placed into the different companies. It was then that I learned how I had been processed just three or four days before.

It was so warm and stuffy today that it was all a person could do to keep himself going. The ideal way would be to move our working day into the evening hours but then the drawback would be trying to get a good sleep during the blistering daytime. These tents are hot enough even when the sides are rolled up but if the sides are down and the sun is shining, they are veritable ovens. They are actually so hot that the air outside the tent which had seemed stuffy before seems almost cool when you step back into it.

The PX raised the limit on candy bars to six per person today and we stormed in to buy Milky Ways and Mound candy bars. The fellows in the PX spread the rumor about that those fellows from Personnel bought up everything one day; so ever since then we rib them when we come in and say here comes Personnel on a raid of the PX. One office force buys out the stuff for a whole regiment! Of course, it isn't true but we come in one right after another so that for about ten minutes or maybe even a space of twenty minutes, we have been the predominant customers.

Gosh, one of those great big flying bugs was in the office just now but we dispatched it in a jiffy. I think they call it a walking stick and has a body which is every bit of four inches long. They are very fragile in spite of their size. Fortunately, there aren't very many of them flying around.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman