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Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
3 July 1944

Dear Aunty Clara,

Monday

What a Mail Call! I received the egg beater along with the sardines and olives from the Infiestas. Thanks a lot for sending that egg beater. It is going to be a great aid when it comes to beating up these milk drinks. And I also got the other package with the bowl, more sardines, the pickles and the chocolate malted milk. I was tickled pink getting then and the opening up of the packages here in the office created quite a sensation during the noon hour. One of the officers, Captain Knowlton, happened to be in at the time and he just couldn't understand this business of an egg beater and a bowl - overseas like this. We explained the situation to his and he commented on the fact that an egg beater is a hard thing to get these days --- don't we know it?

But that isn't all. A birthday card arrived from the Klicks for me. Please don't tell them about my getting it for I'm not going to let them know I have received it this soon but will wait until another week or so passes and it is nearer to July 24th. It was a rather nice card with written in "Congratulations Sarg" and "Dad, Rose and Rosana" as usual. Stapled on to the card was a five dollar bill and the words "Hope you can spend this Five without sending it back."

Then there was one Daily News along with six V-mails! One was from you dated the 24th of June to which I have some questions and comments but that will follow later. Then there was a four page V-mail letter from Mrs Boyer and, lastly, but by far from the least was another letter from Pat. Her coolness id gone and she answers with a "So-long" which is quite a comedown from her very formal letters of a year and a half ago. Now it is my turn to feel like a real cad. Here she is answering my letters yet I've not written an answer to her letters during the last month. O well, maybe tonight, I hope.

That is the end of the mail situation so far today but there may be more for that mail load came in this morning in a jeep whereas this afternoon they are going to take a weapons carrier in to the post office to pick up the mail they left behind. That is a funny thing but today I helped sort the mail and the fourth package I picked up was the bowl. I knew that one at a glance but I wasn't exactly sure about the other one.

Now I have quite a few letters to answer. It is a must to answer the Infiestas, Pat, Mrs Boyer, Uncle Jack and also Harvey Beaumont.

What Aunty Florence says about Western Electric and their fast production is true. Why even in the offices, they go on that production basis and it wears the employees nerves to a frazzle trying to keep the steady drive going. At one time, you recall, I thought it was something to work in a big plant like that but after Rathborne and now the Army, I just don't think I could ever be satisfied in a place like that. The smaller, less impersonal offices and working places are much better all the way around. It is one o'clock now so I guess I'll have to sign off until four. So-long for now.

I signed off for more than four o'clock as I soon found out. Captain Hanton is up to his old tricks of bringing work in at the very last minute and since Leishman was gone for the afternoon and Sackett was busy typing something else for him, it was necessary for me to stay over from five minutes to four to quarter to five. More about that later. Right now it seems as if I chose the wrong time to finish this letter as there have been several questions arising concerning the pay of an enlisted man and various other things which have taken me away from this letter. Perhaps the best time to complete it and write my other letters will be after the show. The show is "No Time for Love" with Fred MacMurry and Claudette Colbert. It is an old picture but I haven't seen it.

Now it is after the show and in a way I'm sorry I went for I didn't care for the picture. It dragged along. Of course a person can't tell about such things in advance. It could have been an excellent picture but as it turned out it wasn't so good at all.

Now let's see where was I and where shall I begin? I could tell you a bit about Pat's letter. She seems to have forgotten my address. It was addressed to the old Company A, 353rd Engrs at New Cal. That sets me to wondering where her mind is. Does she throw away the letters and try to remember the address? Or does she save one or two and none since this island? It was also addressed Cpl even though it was written on the 18th, but that is understandable for it wasn't until then that I sent her the first letter last month. And it wasn't a letter but merely a note saying I received her letter.

Now back to the egg beater and the bowl. Unfortunately, and in spite of the precautions you took in wrapping the bowl, it chipped considerably both inside and outside. Of course, such a little thing isn't going to deter a fellow from using it. I'll just have to be careful when mixing the milk so as not to get any more chips loose at that time. It is the craziest thing going down to the mess kit washing tubs to wash the beater and bowl and have everyone comment on the oddity of possessing such things overseas. The effect is almost the same as wearing Saddle Shoes in January with snow on the ground.

Going back to Aunty Florence and the way she keeps remembering her miserable day down at work makes me glad that I can forget it so easily. Sometimes it is necessary to do something after working hours but when it isn't, I become completely civilian in mind after four o'clock. It is only that which can keep a fellow going in the Army. If he were to think, live, act and be "army" around the clock, he would either go nuts or become a thirty-year man. Sometimes when I write a letter immediately after work, you will often notice that I am very bitter if the day was unsettled. However, if I leave off talking about it immediately and pick up the letter later on at night like I have done this evening, all the inconveniences of the day are forgotten and in the dim past. It doesn't pay to recall anything but the pleasant things of life.

I haven't told you this before because I kept forgetting it but T/Sgt Reuben Simanoff from the 353rd was here and still is here visiting the boys. Those fellows have the Army made the way they can come and go from there to here. You see, they can come on the pretext of having business with Group Hq while we can't do that for we do not have any business with the 353rd.

In the afternoon's mail I received an additional Daily News and the June copy of the Reader's Digest. There is an interesting article in it concerning the Greeks in their country. It seems that there is only seven million of them and already one million of them are dead. I wonder if Pat has any relatives there now? She must have since she was born in Athens as well as her mother. It seems funny to think that she might have stayed there in Greece and never have come to America. What is it about Greeks that makes them swell people? Tommy a good friend and Pat a swell girl.

The chances for trying out the new kitchen implements are fast disappearing for almost all the water is gone and there is no transportation available to go down to the water point to fill the can up again.

O yes, another thing I received in the afternoon's mail was another package. I was from Mrs Boyer and was called a candy letter. The only trouble was that she didn't write any letter with the candy which consisted of about six or seven caramels which were good and about ten little cups of assorted candies such as gum drops, colored pellets and butterfly candies.

I don't know who's letter I should or will answer first. It really ought to be Pat's for I owe her three answers instead of just one. I think that's what I'll do, type her a letter. Maybe.

Flash ---- Burkard pulled up in a ton and a half weapons carrier and let me take it down to the water point to fill up our five gallon can. The result was that Bill and I initiated the bowl and beater. Two canteen cups plus six tablespoons of milk and three (wrong 12 and 3 of chocolate) fill the bowl to the brim. It's slow beating at first but then fast. The taste --- simply Super!

So-long,
Roman