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Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 75
c/p SF Cal
21 June 1945

Dear Aunty Clara,

Thursday

Today I received three letters from you dated the 7th, 8th and the 9th of June. I shouldn't have any complaints getting three letters that away but the air mails are coming in dated the 11th of June and still no word from Pat. She always writes air mail evidently up to and including Monday after her graduation she still hadn't written to me. Maybe the bouquet scared her off and she decided that the situation had gone far enough and the time had come to call a late but definite halt to the proceedings. That, merely, is one surmise upon the subject.

In one of today's letters you tell me how you stopped in at the florist to look at the flowers and that they were perfect. I know that your description of them was perfect so they must have been exactly as you pictured them to me. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised to learn that not only was it "one dozen roses" but "two dozen roses".

Your letter saying that you are glad that I make the best of things instead of being one of the gripers comes at a sad time after I spent a good two weeks recently griping about one thing or another. However, for the moment the blue spell is over and I have a renewed hope that things will not continue on as they are for too long of a time into the future. Today, for the first time in a long time, I actually enjoyed life again. I guess one of the things was talking about the dance last night the way people talk about affairs the next day after it occurred. I'm CQ this evening but the other fellows are going back again tonight. Bill says that the taxi dancer, Mary, was really an elegant dancer and he would like to rhumba, jitterbug and just plain dance with her for a full evening.

Did I tell you in last night's letter that we saw some dances by Wacs and GI's which they evidently picked up several years back when we (the US) was in Australia? They are the craziest dance numbers. In jitterbugging there isn't much contact between the two flying partners but in these dances the fellow was about seven paces in front of the girl, with his back to her, and they would go through the identical steps for the full number something like a chorus of two.

There is one feature about the dance hall that is bad. The only refreshments they serve are really not refreshments at all but whisky and ice cold water. The Filipino women do not like liquor and will not drink it. They also specify before even dancing with anyone that they do not want to dance with a man who has been drinking. Before coming to the islands I read something about the Filipino's drinking to a moderate degree but the common high state of spirits Americans can get themselves into, is scarcely unknown to them.

Of course, to be sociable, I had to indulge in my first "shot" ever. I tell you that with grave trepidations in view of the fact that the time I told you about drinking an occasional bottle of beer, you went ahead and had wild dreams and needless worries. Now more about that "shot" - frankly, our Barcardi rum (or even mixed into a Cuba Libre) tastes stronger and perhaps I'm inhuman but I did not experience that famous sour look that they and other whisky drinkers make. I guess that was Scotch whiskey.

Whew, I'm going to have to type the rest of this letter in a mighty big hurry. My evening has just been wasted away by an hour and a half of conversation with Lt. Suiter and about an hour's talking with Norona. That is the one bad part about being up here in the office and that is that you are subject to such unauthorized time wastage periods.

Now let's see, where was I? O yes, I wanted to talk to you about Charles Matcha and his furlough turning into a permanent stay in the states. That was only for soldiers who had a large quantity of points and who were furloughed under the old plan and happened to be in the States at the time the European War was over. However, if anyone goes home on furlough now, he can not expect to be retained in the States unless he is lucky enough to have the Jap War end while he is home. So you see, Aunty Clara, even if in a future time I should become fortunate enough to return to the States on furlough, I'll be going back again at the end of the 45 days. But Charles sure did hit it lucky and now he will be a cinch to get out on the age limit when it is lowered a few more years as it surely will be lowered. Then too, Charles must have close to 80 points if he was in the army for so long and the points will soon get him out. In view of the fact that he is now back in circulation at home, it would be wise for me to ask about the disposition of my typewriter. Here in the Philippines the natives have a habit of charging for everything but if they like you, everything is yours for friendship. If they want the pesos, it is "no for friendship" and the same goes with my typewriter "no for friendship". There wouldn't be much point in having bothered to keep the machine while I went away to war if we are now going to loan it out for the remaining part of the duration before I get home. Knowing how typewriters can get in disrepair I do not want that to happen to mine. After all, it may be a hard thing to do but during his furlough it was alright but now the typewriter stays were/where it belongs. You can see my viewpoint, can't you? In fact, I suppose by now it is back up in the bedroom on its little stand.

That friendship deal also must still hold true with the golf club my dad "Borrowed" last year. Am I right? You can easily see that that club will either be borrowed permanently or when I do get it back, it certainly isn't going to match the rest of my set. And another thing I never could remember just how I packed them and I'm wondering if when he broke into them to get that club if he made it possible for air to get at the clubs and rust them? Like Uncle Jack taking my clothes and wearing them, that is strictly alright. For one thing, they are getting more out of style every day and also they can't last forever. A fellow expects to buy a new wardrobe when he returns home and that is one of the reasons for that three hundred buck present when you are discharged. But items of permanent value which you expect to use in years to come are not to be lightly regarded.

Lt. Suiter spoke to me today about when my day off was and I told him yesterday just like last week and it turns out that he spends five minutes trying to see if I couldn't take some other day of this week off but it isn't any go since "two hard workers can't be off the same day" and the rest of the week is filled up with hard workers taking their day's off.

I can see right now that next week I'm not going to be able to get off because the Efficiency Reports are slow now in coming in and on the 27th I'll be working to meet the deadline of the 26th so you can see that I am truly leading a slavish existence. It peeved me a little to have him ask me if I hadn't caught up yet. I told him last week I had to get those pay vouchers out on that day and this week I could have taken off had not those MRU rosters come in the afternoon before and made me work on my day off.

It looks as if the tent floors are out and mud is going to be the only floor we are going to have. That is unfortunate in a way although it will not bother me too much so long as they don't go too GI on the arrangements of the tents. After all, without floors there isn't much sense in being so strict about everything else.

I believe I have already answered your question about Spanish in the Philippines. They have a Spanish heritage and Spanish names but they have lost the tongue. Tagalog and American are the two languages of the country.

I sure hope that I'll soon be hearing from you sooner than the V-mails are now coming in and also that I'll be getting some returns on my avalanche of mail I wrote aboard boat. I can't understand why it should have arrived in driblets instead of all coming on the same day. If that is the case, that it was delayed like that, most people won't have heard from me for quite some time even though I probably wrote the letter a month previously.

I haven't even had a letter from Blumenfeld in over a month now which is pretty bad seeing as how I used to get almost one a week from him.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman