Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
5 December 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Sunday
We got the Billy Goat out of the office by force. Mike had to grab him by the horns and actually drag him from the place.
But all that mail which I was telling you about did not materialize as far as I was concerned. The mail call was held at three-thirty and three sacks of mail was distributed by T/5 Hill at his last official mail call and not one measly letter, package or newspaper was for me. It looks as if December is going to be a bad month. I only missed five times in all November and here it is the fifth day of the new month and I have already lost one day.
Incidentally, I have given up all hope of ever receiving the box of mallow delights or the tin of hard candy with the magnifying glass and whatever familiar printing which was supposed to mean an extra little bit. I have definite reason to believe it was lost because the post office has distributed a list of articles a mile long of things which were definitely damaged by some accident in the storage place of the Christmas packages.
However, I thank you for the hard candy and all that came with it although I will always be curious as to what it contained which prompted you to mention it in a special letter along with the statement that after I receive it you will explain it further. I will also send S. Gonzalez a letter thanking him for his present even though I never have received it.
All I could write this afternoon was a letter to Doris and Brad and a letter to the Michalaks. I meant to write more but after not getting anything in mail call I lost my ambition for the afternoon. In the evening, I began writing a letter but stopped to read a magazine and before I finished it, I found that I would only have time to write this letter.
The letter to the Bradley's was mailed to Mrs Reed's Box because why should I send a letter to an address I know they no longer live at. Incidentally, I checked their last address and found that I sent the Christmas card to the address they lived at last year. I received some V-mail Christmas cards today and will send one of them to the Bradleys in care of the Reeds just in case they don't get the other one. In their letter, however, I gave them a lot of baloney about liking cribbage etcetera in order to make them happy. The fact of the matter is that Mersing and I did play a game but it is merely a card game and I am not any to keen about card games.
In the letter which I sent the Michalaks, I also said a lot of things which I hope will make them happy. After all a person can't always say what he wants to but must sometimes say what people want to hear. It may be Oriental but at least it is not so brusque.
I did not see "Rebecca" although as things turned out, I might just as well have for everything I didn't get accomplished this evening. I did walk up to the amphitheater just in case they showed a good short or newsreel in front of the picture but no such luck.
Blumenfeld called up during the course of the evening and because it was Sunday evening and everything is quiet as far as the phone is concerned on a Sunday night, I talked to him for some time. He still has hopes of going to the Judge Advocates OCS. He wants to see if we could get together for an all day talk some day but we don't know just how or when. The S/Sgt he worked for is leaving for OCS but it looks as if the Robbin is not going to get any rating out of the deal after all. He refers to it as a sad case.
I'm going to have to work on the payroll tomorrow for sure because Lt Yantis wants them all in, not by the 10th but by the 9th. That is four full days but it shouldn't take any more than one day. A special order came out today with all the promotions in my company but the promotion of S/Sgt Cooley to 1st Sgt did not take place. It seems he will have to be acting 1st Sgt for a little while and prove himself capable of the job before he gets it officially. In a way I feel sorry for him from the financial point of view because the situation is such that he will be redlined on a S/Sgts pay but as a 1st Sgt he would have gotten some money in his pay for this month.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman