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Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM SF Cal
10 July 1944

Dear Aunty Clara,

Monday

There was one question which you asked in yesterday's letter which I did not answer and that was concerning having bridgework done on the teeth if at all possible since it would quite a lot a difference between the free medical attention the army gives one and the costly work done by civilian dentists. Well, Lewis is of the same mind and he really needs bridgework on his teeth for more than one front tooth is missing. Yet, the dentist says that the army as a rule does not bother with bridgework and usually waits until a plate is needed. Bridgework is really more for appearance than necessity and in the army one hasn't that added need to have every tooth just so as in civilian life and other soldiers are always tolerant of dental defects in others --- more so than civilians ever are. Another thing is that the dentists find that quite often the teeth are really too soft for bridgework and in these tropics the teeth keep rotting away etcetera so that they would always have additional work to be done with them and the army dentists are busy enough the way it is without asking for double the amount. So you see, anything like that will have to wait until the post war years.

I received three pieces of mail this morning. One was your V-mail of the 3rd, two and three were V-mail letters from Uncle Jack and four and five were birthday cards from Anita and you. Thank you for the card, Aunty Clara, it was the nice, short-sweet-and-to-the-point cards kind. Anitas was a fancy affair and said "Birthday Greetings, Brother (loca parente) on the outside. On the inside the verse was "Happy Birthday, Brother, and of course I mean it, too, for it really is a pleasure to be wishing it for you!" She also wrote "Hi Romeo: It won't be long and you'll be a Looey eh? We've been hearing things about you boys being here for Xmas. I hope so. Won't you send a request to me for something? They advise us not to send money, but what else is there? Love and may you spend your next birthday in our own incomparable country. We've taken a long chance on buying a home. There was nothing else to do, or pitch a tent. It seems children are most unwelcome everywhere. Lots of love and best wishes."

Now, please don't bawl Uncle Jack out for what I'm going to tell you now because it isn't his fault. He didn't realize that you hadn't told me what you were sending to me and went ahead and mentioned that a pair of moccasins are now on the way. You would know it when I send home his letter so I might as well call it to your attention right now, and save him a scolding. Of course, you know that I will like them for that was one of the things I mentioned which you could send me if you wanted to although I had asked to have you buy them. Then again maybe Uncle Jack has it mixed up and you are sending me a bill for them enclosed in the slippers, eh what?

The more I think about that grass skirt, the crazier it seems to be. Who in the world would want one of those silly things? No one is going to wear them, that is for sure and they aren't much to even look at although that may be because they are so common around here as souvenirs which the soldiers send home. Maybe back home they aren't seen so very often and will be a novelty. Then too, perhaps Pat can loan it out during her senior year at school should they ever put on a play in the Morton Auditorium which should require a grass skirt as one of the costumes.

The work at the office has kept me busy all morning and, plus several times in which I had to leave off my work to do some of the Company Clerks work, has ended with the result that my own work is now going to carry well into the afternoon. It all concerned checking over the old morning reports to check for their accuracy which I have begun to doubt a bit since I noticed a discrepancy here and there.

At the time I wrote that GI versions of how a day back home would go, I didn't realize that it was going to do so much traveling and now I'm thinking that perhaps I should have not just dashed it off like that. I wonder if the other people have noticed that my writing has more of less deteriorated during the past year and a half?

The show this evening promises to be a good one with Merle Oberon and Laird Cregar in "The Lodger."

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman