Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
27 November 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Saturday
This is one present and thank you which is not going to be delayed one bit. The book came today and it is just the kind I wanted, too. Now how in the world did you ever think of Galsworthy (as if I didn't know)? Since you couldn't write anything in the book as it was sent directly from the publishing house in New York, I wrote in it "From Aunty Florence and Aunty Clara for Xmas 1943". Thanks a lot for the best Christmas present of them all.
There are over 800 pages in the book so that would mean by reading one page a day the war will be over when the eighth hundred page is reached. You know when I first got to read that book? I had finished the Galsworthy triad which you and Aunty Florence had bought me on previous Christmases or my birthday and I happened to see this immense volume on Galsworthy's life in the library. I took it out but never did get a chance to read very much of it since about the only time I read was late Saturday nights or Sunday mornings in the 56th Avenue "L" Station waiting for Aunty Florence to come back from the dances.
All in all, today was a good day as far as the mail was concerned. I received two v-mails from you dated the 17th and 18th of November and two Daily Newses from the 14th and the 18th. I'm sure that Uncle Jack will be able to find something suitable within a short time with all the shortage of help these days and especially in a big place like Chicago. I hope that when he does find a place, it will be a good one to work for instead of something like Ackerman's where the long years of service don't seem to mean so much. RH&R isn't such a bad place in spite of what other employees think about it. Wouldn't it be funny though if that was the place he finally wound up at?
The only way it will be possible to tell whether or not the V-mail is being serviced at the new Chicago V-mail station will be by the speedier delivery since our mail doesn't come post-marked as you know.
By the way, the reason I never mentioned driving a car before was because Army Regulations state that soldiers should have permits to drive government cars. Therefore, I really didn't do any driving at all to speak of except on probably three or four occasions in which an officer allowed me to drive on short trips inside the Regimental Area. Those three or four trips were the familiarizing practice I had before getting my permit. However, that is all one needs because in principle Army cars operate just like ordinary civilian cars. The only difference is that the gear shifts are not in the same place as a civilian car and there is a trick known as double-clutching which is a necessity in shifting gears in an Army vehicle. Uncle Jack and my Dad probably know what double-clutching is although you do not employ it ordinarily. So there you have it in a nutshell, I probably spent an aggregate total of fifteen minutes behind the wheels of those army trucks before I started to drive over to the other outfit to show the movies. The fact of the matter is that many fellows who haven't driven a car since leaving civilian life find themselves driving their first army vehicle with their permit already in hand without ever having a few warm-ups. Do you understand the situation now? You telling me about the new fruit cake you were making had my mouth watering but I got a laugh when you said that now that you had made the new one you would "eat up the one I made before". Somehow or other it struck my funny bone that the minute you had the new fruit cake in the oven, you went to the pantry and got out the other one and just ate and ate and ate until it was all gone.
The "Call to Quarters" just blew which means quarter to eleven as you should know by now after having me mention it from time after time throughout the last year. However, since I still have more to gab about you will find it on the second page of this letter.
Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
27 November 1943
By now you have probably wondered what became of the shots which our company was scheduled to take this morning. We took them alright and at the time it was nothing more than a slight pin prick which was shrugged off both figuratively and literally since it was just below the shoulder. But by noon-time its effect was beginning to tell and quite a good number of us fellows weren't ashamed to admit it that every time we raised our right arm we could distinctly recollect that we were given a little stimulant that AM. But that wasn't the worst yet because I am not in the best of health right now or have been at any time since the middle of the show tonight. However, I can't blame it specifically on the shot because there may be other causes. My head has been alternately floating around in air and then clamped in an invisible vise-like grip. My back, chest and arms all ache and I would welcome a nice soft cot right now. However, when I take a good deep breath, I just can't do it because there seems to be some sort of tightening in my chest.
The reason I do not blame that semi-feverish condition entirely on the shot is because I read in the magazine this afternoon that the winter of 1943 is supposed to produce a violent epidemic of influenza. Outside of not having any chills and hot spells, I have the symptoms of the disease. Then too, it could be the shot because one of Jack's boyfriends in B Company ran a fever and temperature for a day or so after he received the shot last week and Emery of my company stayed in bed all day today. But even then it could be a third cause and that would be the mosquitoes. They spread a harmless type of fever germ during the next few months. It is a dengue fever and keeps a person in bed for about eight days but other than that it has no ill effects.
By tomorrow this time I will be writing you either that this thing is a passing fancy or whether it has come to stay a while. If it turns out to be the shot, and I strongly suspect that that is the cause of it, it will be the very first time that those things have bothered me in the least. I can almost hear my Dad saying now that I would have to go and lower my resistance by not sleeping regular hours and by depending on candy bars too much for a supplementary diet. He cautioned me about those things in his last letter.
Nevertheless, after that long health report, I can proceed to tell you a few of the other things we did today. We saw the show this evening and I believe that "Yankee Doodle Dandy" made a better impression than "Rebecca" could have done. The fellows walked away from the show this evening humming those old familiar tunes like "Mary", "45 Minutes from Broadway", "Grand Old Flag" and "Over There".
A detail came around during the day and put up our screen door for us but we didn't do any more work on the tent this evening because it was show night. However, tomorrow morning we will all have to be up bright and early to finish the screening of the sides, nailing on the lathe borders and putting on canvas corners and finishings. That tent has sure taken a chunk out of all of our times. It is too bad that when we first came to the Island. We couldn't have built the things complete instead of adding a little more every month or so. Each time that a person thinks that will be all to be done with then some change is made. For that matter I was just as bad with my footlockers and cabinets, always changing them.
This evening at the show I ate a whole can of peanuts (assorted nuts) which Aunt-Aunt sent me but I still have a lot left in the big tin of hers. They are something good to munch on but I would take straight peanuts any day. And I think the assorted mixture is much more expensive than the plain peanuts, too.
By the way, the new book fits in my miniature library in the field chest but if I get many more books while I'm in the army, I'm going to have to build a bookcase.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman