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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Saturday



This is a letter of just nothing in particular but loose thoughts which happen to be straying around in my mind and need saying. For instance, I dislike Schnozzle Durante just as much now as I did the first time he was popular and I see no humor at all in his "Umbriago." I like that song Besa Me Mucho but can't see how I'll Get By became popular again even though it was featured in that picture "A Guy Named Joe." Walter Houston conducts a fifteen minute program of great music each afternoon and does a swell job of it. Two local squirrels over the radio think they are on a commercial hook-up and are pulling for more fan mail so that they can tell who is the most popular. They both play records for a living. One specializes in hill-billy music and the other in swing rhythm. Another fellow who plays the early morning getting up program just laughs at them and says something like this, "If you like this program you don't have to send a postcard in, but if you feel you must, just send it to me, or to the radio station or to the program of just send it." Then this morning he came up with a lulu, he said "If you have any request number you would like to have played on this program, just write it on a postcard and drop it in the ocean." Evidently he feels that his job is safe.

The paraqueet Pete had a bruised wing and couldn't fly. After two days of living in the office on a little swing they built for him, he has become strong enough to circle around the office while the major (Shubat) and others try to get him to sit on their fingers.

After not having had candy for such a long time, the PX now has too much of it. A person can get all he wants so now most everyone is tiring of it.

At work the Morning Reports Section is operating rather smoothly with a fool-proof, triple check system swinging into use. It is novel but has the experience of the last two months of experimentation in back of it. Errors should not happen at all now. For the future there are some good ideas in the making for further simplification and standardization of procedures in that same Morning Reports section. The next phase of the office work will be to do the same thing in regards to the Officer Sub-Section. From there it will be a general planning operation of office detail and procedure. The idea of course is to get into the old practice of organizing, arranging and planning how to keep files, cut down errors, eliminate time wasters, speed up processes etcetera so that on return to civilian life the old form will come back again. This planning business is interesting and reminds me of the time Ray Suchoski and I contributed our ideas and came up with that Reminder with all the little slides which could be pushed out of their slots so that when Mr. Furlong came into the office, he could see at a glance who had called him since his last trip in.

We've got a mail room in the Personnel Section of the Headquarters Building which has in it not only the mail but also a Battalion Library, musical instruments, sporting equipment and facilities for wall advertising for either war bonds, soldier voting, war maps, Army Institute courses, etcetera.

One of the expressions in use (current) is to ask a fellow "Say, Buddy, have you gotten your first laundry back yet" which in other words calls him a rookie. That expression is most frequently used when someone pulls a dumb stunt which only a rookie would pull.

Nothing has come up yet to stop our plans for tomorrow to go swimming except that I may not be able to go in since Jack M. never did show up with his bathing trunks.

The show at the Navy this evening features Lupe Valez so most likely will not be any good. We will go to the midnight show only if the reports from the early show goers is okay.

Now for other letters and then possibly a resume of the letters in a closing one this evening.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman