Home | Return to Index

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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Saturday

There were no letters at all dated the 1st of December on account of because I didn't write any letters yesterday. And the reason why I didn't write any letters is simply that I was tired and wasn't at the right place at the right time. We unexpectedly had the afternoon off instead of listening to two hours of boring lecture on military courtesy and orientation. Being tired as I was, I tried going to sleep and succeeded at first --- that was prior to pay call at two o'clock. After that I never did get to sleep although I rested on my cot reading a book the entire afternoon.

Incidentally, I haven't gotten around yet to figuring up if I got paid the correct amount or not. It is probably right but after not being paid for three months, a sum like 13 dollars and 30 cents seemed mighty small. Then, four feet from the pay line was Mersing taking in fifty cents from each man for the KPs --- $12.80 left. I came out the door and met Norona coming out behind me and I paid him the dollar I owed him, $11.80 left. As I walked to the barracks with Molyneaux, I passed by Sackett's barracks and stepped inside to pay him the buck I still owed him on the Coca Cola deal which left me with the handsome total of $10.80 still my own. At this point Molyneaux (the devil) was trying to tell me that in a few minutes there would be $2,000 on a little round table in the day room and why didn't I go in there and invest part of my ten dollars so that I could double or triple it? I said no, that I did not want to leave the little table with $2,010. Having stirred clear of his evil influence, I still managed to get rid of my money at a fast enough pace as I stopped off just before my barracks and paid Bill Grauel the fifty cents he had advanced me the other day when I went and got my haircut. So, today I have $10.30 left from my original pay.

But that is not what I have today - I have $11.80. The other dollar came from Mary Lopez Keeling who enclosed it along with the package of nuts from Aunt-Aunt. The nuts came in the afternoon mail and I immediately set to eating them but they were not as fresh as they usually are mainly because the waxed paper which encased the can had been punctured and the can itself was not fitted tightly. They were still in tolerable good shape so I ate some and passed quite a bit around. There remains a half a can of peanuts in my desk but right now I'm not in the peanut eating mood.

Also last night at the show between Lewis, Norona and myself, we finished off the second box of candy which I received from the Bradley's the previous day. The reason for the speed in dispatching all candy received is (1) after the box is opened, it might as well be eaten before it is no longer fresh. (2) An open box of candy is a temptation for bugs, bugs and more bugs and (3) in this particular case, I had good reason for eating the candy last night for today I can eat none.

Ebner was CQ last night and it was not my turn to run the picture. Along about seven-thirty, I came up to the office and Eb didn't know who was to run the picture. Just about that time the band was finishing its show and I went down to the projection booth to find Yantis, Haley and Peck all down there working on the machine and I saw no reason for my presence and, therefore, promptly vacated the premises for a more propitious seat down with the gang. Gosh, they really messed things up last night and I don't think at my very worst, I could run a movie off that badly.

Anyhow, after the show was over I was tired and the buglers and Lewis were going to clean up the office so I chose to go to bed rather than come up here and work an hour before getting a chance to write a letter in a doubly tired condition.

The show "Follow the Boys" was rather good. It featured George Raft and Charles Butterworth as the two character parts and the rest of Hollywood as themselves including such names as Donald O'Connor & Peggy Ryan, Marlene Dietrick, Orson Welles, Martha O'Driscoll, Sophie Tucker, Jeanette McDonald, W. C. Fields, the Bricklayers, and others which I can't think of off hand. For that it was good entertainment but the story had no plot at all.

Also, yesterday, your letter of the 22nd of November arrived. The people are funny about strikes. D-Day brought about a temporary unification of the workers just as did Pearl Harbor Day but it soon wears off and they will strike in anything, B-29 plants (according to my latest Daily News) and the North Shore lines according to your letter. Another funny thing is about Mrs Reed, I'll bet you she lives a long time --- why look how long Stack lived and he was dying every year and seeing doctors and quacks right and left. The only thing wrong with our family is the poor teeth we have and I hope it continues to be that way.

Looking back at yesterday, that is about all I can see so I'll begin a narration of today. For one thing, you probably remember that I had an appointment for 10:30 on Saturday the 2nd of December. Just one more reason why I wanted to rest up in the afternoon and then get to bed early in the evening so that my fortitude and staying power would be right in condition for this evening-morning. For a moment there I thought I was out of luck once again for I went to the Medics at 10:30 and the Colonel came through on his inspection (that took fifteen minutes) and then I waited and waited and waited until after eleven o'clock before I was called.

But, gosh, Aunty Clara, this was the easiest time I've ever had in the dentist chair and have him do something to my mouth. I told him about knocking out a filling and also a piece of tooth. Fortunately, the piece of tooth, he discovered, came from the tooth or one of the teeth on the extraction agenda so that settled it immediately as to which one was going to be pulled. It was an upper one on the right side and makes the third tooth out of my mouth. By the time I get home, even though it is July 24th 1945 or even as late as July 27th 1945, we will both look the same age since I'll be a toothless old veteran. He did a quick job of it and deadened the nerve with two well placed jabs with the needle all while he is kidding the boys talking there in the office that old Klick turned out to be a rugged chap. He poked in there with a sharp object to satisfy himself as to whether it was deadened or not. What I thought was another instrument preparing the way, happened to be the yankers themselves and as the saying goes, "I didn't even know it was out." That was a far cry from the first one with Kolar when it hurt like bloody murder and the first one with Stieler when he had to work on it fifteen minutes trying to get it our without breaking it.

His instructions were to keep the packing in there for a good half hour and be sure not to wash out the blood clot today otherwise there would be nothing to cover the bone and we would have a heck of a time with it. I haven't had a drink of water and will try to keep away from it as much as I can. But it seems as if the blood clot is falling out on its own hook - you know how it is when they do start coming loose, don't you? Anyway, I'm CQ this afternoon and the tooth isn't bleeding a bit whereas that first one had me laying on the cot during the afternoon and bleeding like a pig (the first one on this island).

He found another cavity and plus the other extraction, I'll be going well into next year. My coming appoint is for 7:30 the 29th of December.

Gee whiz, Aunty Clara, don't go building up hopes for my return by the end of July next year or you may be due in for an awful let down. The way I look at it or see it from here the future looks black as can be for any such return home. It is only seven months away right now until July and they pass by very swiftly. If some miracle would happen and it would come true that, we could celebrate our 1/4 and 1/2 century marks together, it would be almost one of the best dreams that ever came true.

As I sat here typing these sheets of V-mail this afternoon, Jack M rolled up with the afternoon's mail and in it were three v-mails from you dated the 23d and two the 24th. In one of them you mention about taking miniature pictures next year and then 25 years later. That sure would be nice to have, wouldn't it? And then when you're one hundred and I'm seventy-five, we can take the last pictures because after that, I doubt if we will be living for twenty-five years again. But then again, maybe we won't take that third sitting because it would be awful to live to one hundred and for myself, I doubt if seventy-five would be much fun either. Well, maybe about eighty would be okay --- just when a person gets to the doddering point.

Thanks for sending out the face cloths but with the mail the way it is these days I'll expect to receive it sometime in February.

Children sure can get some funny impressions but then they seem funny to us but when Lynne Bradley called the snow "milk" she probably was the most serious little girl in the world at the time. From a childhood misconception like that she could remember the rest of her life that when she was a little girl, the earth was covered with milk during the winter time instead of with snow.

O gee, there I go, putting my foot into it again. Here I read the letter real fast and now on rereading it, I find that you do not wish for me to say that we won't get home by next year. But I can add a glad light to that subject. The minute VE-day arrives, we will have our demobilization cards right up to date so maybe we will be coming home for good sooner than we think. And then too, the fellows here in the South Pacific are getting to move again and while rotation probably won't be the vogue, the furloughs will be coming through a little more rapidly and who knows but that two months after the two years are up, the furlough might take effect for this particular soldier.

The Spanish rice you used to make used to be the popular dish back in Camp White in the Company B mess hall and for a while in A Company too, but since then we have never had it. There are quite a few dishes I miss but can not keep thinking of them but all I have to do is hear or read about them or have you mention them and they bring back hosts of memories associated with home. Anything from talking to you while you were cooking in the kitchen or laughing and talking at one of the Saturday night parties when all the special dishes were being served at one time.

And then --- oops an interruption came in the form of a feminine voice speaking over the telephone and asking for the Casanova of the Officers --- Captain Ladley. It seems funny to hear a woman's voice over a phone. It must be at least nineteen months or more since that ever happened. Well, whatever I was going to say in this paragraph has been forgotten. I hope that I'm not going to be that susceptible to female wiles when I get back home that I forget what I'm doing.

O yes, I was going to say that the link friendship bracelet for Rosana seems to be a pretty nice thing.

Now for the rest of today's story or at least as far as it has gone. The morning started off on a bad foot with Captain Cook asking for a roster of a certain date last month. That took time. Then Sackett wanted something typed up. Then word came around that the colonel was inspecting this morning instead of tomorrow and we had to go down and get the barracks in shape as well as the office and after all that, I got to work on my Morning Reports. All these little side issues come in and make it a busy day for a fellow. I still haven't done some work I was supposed to do yesterday. This afternoon when I came down for my tour of duty as CQ I ran into another job of typing up duplicate officer cards and that kept me busy for a good while.

Then the mail came in and only by sorting out the mail was I saved another tough job of making out the training schedule for next week. And another thing was that I had to stay in the office so Saki went over to group headquarters to type it up.

By the way, Jack and I are keeping our dental appointments together. I started going to the dentist just when Grauel finished and then Lewis and I kept getting our dentist days pretty close to each other and he finished and now Molyneaux but Klick goes on for ever. Until the day comes when I have a set of false teeth in my bottom and top jaw, I'll probably be spending a good portion of my life sitting in dentist chairs. The novocaine is fully wore off now and there is a slight throb in the mouth. I doubt if the slight effect will become worse but should it do so, I'm off CQ in a few minutes and I can go get some sleep. I may or may not write again this evening but at least this four page letter covers the past history from yesterday to four-thirty today.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman