Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM SF Cal
12 December 1944
Dear Aunty Clara,
Tuesday
I'm taking Hipp's place on CQ this afternoon, ate an early chow and am now up here in the office alone (with Lewis and the bugler) which time gives me an excellent opportunity to bang out a letter. Two letters came in the mail this morning. One was a letter or rather a note from Blumenfeld along with another of those CCCR's that he has been sending to me and which I in turn mark for distribution among our boys. The other one was a V-mail from you dated the 5th of December. The V-mail slipped thru the sorting out process up here in the mail room so that it came as a pleasant surprise while I was laying down on my bunk after eating lunch.
I'm glad that you enjoyed "Up In Arms" and your reaction about him being a male Betty Hutton was the same as mine. That "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't" song must have finally hit the top of the Hit Parade back home because now it is the most played song on the Guadalcanal Radio and in the dayroom. As always, there is a time lag between its popularity overseas and back in the States. They have a girl singing it on some record which they play quite frequently and I'm wondering if it might not be the same one you heard.
The working day has been going fairly well thus far. The only complaint is that what work there is to be done is small stuff but complicated and there isn't much actual production to be shown for the amount of time spent on it. For about an hour I was reading up ARs trying to find various rulings on how to do the work at hand. I've keyed myself up to keep on the go throughout the day and I dislike a lull then; for, a person can then come crashing right back down to the do nothing stage fast like.
If I type this letter during the noon hour today and stay a bit after work at four bells, I will be able to sleep a bit after chow while the fellows are at the theater seeing "Brother Rat" with Priscilla Lane and Wayne Morris. By the by, last night, after finishing your letters, I did not type any others but, instead, began straightening out my field desk and getting rid of all excess stock which I have been hanging on to but never using. The one big space-taker-upper are/is my collection of books. Methinks that it is high time that I rid myself of some of them. Some I would like sending home but others would be merely a waste of time for I don't like them and I doubt if you would find much interest in reading them. I'll give those to the library. For instance: There is the Pocket Book of War Humor which isn't humorous and what is humorous comes from the Carthagian wars B.C. Another not so very good is "See Here, Private Hargrove." The picture may have been alright but I did not enjoy the book. The Ripley "Believe It Or Not" is okay but there are just too many of them and it isn't very good reading to sit down to a book like that. There are others which I have told you I was sending home from time to time but never got around to it. One is "The Hurricane" which I bought just before coming overseas if you can remember back that far into the past. You'll enjoy it, I enjoyed it, and even if it is only a pocket sized edition I want to keep it in my library. I'll not send the Book of Verse home because all of those poems are contained in the various anthologies which I own. The same goes for several selections of short stories. I will send home "Mission to Moscow" and short stories by DeMaupassant for I want to keep them and you may enjoy DeMaupassant's tales. As for the rest, rather than to take the time to pack them up, pay postage on them and then have them hang around the house forever, I'll merely contribute them to the library. They say they can be mailed individually for three cents although I don't know how it can be done. We shall see what we shall see.
If I empty the desk of all my personal belongings, there sure won't be much left in there. Although when that time comes that I clear it of my stuff, I'll find other business papers to put into it.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman