53

U.S.0.
218 West Main Street
Medford, Oregon

21 February 1943

Dear Aunty Clara:

As you can see from the stationery, I am in the Medford USO once again. Today is Sunday and is the second day in a row which I call wasted. No matter what you folks may say about my going to town etcetera etcetera and all that, I still think I owe it to the people back home to use that extra time I now have to catch up on my letters to them.

It almost burns me up to think of all the time I have wasted since yesterday at 4:00 when we finished our work in the office and began having this long stretch of comparative freedom from work. Usually my Company sends down a lot of work at just such a time and this one was no exception but I polished off what I could and let Harvey do some of it too. The rest of it remains unfinished and will stay that way until I am ready to go back to work tomorrow morning at eight bells.

To top it all off, I went to the show last night with Jack Molyneaux. We had both left the office together and went over to his company mess hail for our eats. He was insistent that I go to show with him and I was just as insistent that I would do no such thing. It ended by my walking him down the half mile or so to the theater and then before I knew what he was about he had bought two tickets and forcibly dragged me into it. In other words I was shanghaied and I did not go by my own free will.

The shows were Class B pictures. One was entitled "Truckbusters", and the other one was called, "Margin of Error". As far as pictures go they were good average entertainment but I could not enjoy them because of two things or really three things when you want to analyze it. (1) I knew I should have been writing letters, (2) I haven't enjoyed movies since Clarence died because I don't see much in them anymore (and especially in these movies these days when they show other people dying etcetera) and (3) just one of my crazy ideas of seeing how long I could stay away from them. My record is four times in a year. Remember the year we started off by having Uncle Jack take us over to the Annetta Theatre to see "Prisoner of Zenda"? Well that is the year I went to the movies only four times. So far this year my count stands at one and I hope it remains that way. Frankly, at times I begin to enjoy the movie but then I think how he enjoyed them and all that stuff which I think I am gradually forgetting.

It is dreadful to think how the human mind can adapt itself to so many things and with such ease. I hardly ever think of Clarence before I fall asleep at night anymore and never when I awake In the morning. I really think that it is not because I am forgetting him but because in this life where I am away from everybody and everything I love, he has just become one of a great many things which I have lost and as such no longer gets that special mourning.

I can imagine very well that once I return to civilian life and feel his absence, that feeling of loss will return.

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I am going to go roller skating in a short while with Molyneaux and John Marth (he's one of our cooks who was with Molyneaux in the 36th) so I will end this note. I did want to finish writing this entire sheet; but I noticed several fellows wanting to use this typewriter and who am I to deprive them of what is possibly their only chance to get at one of these machines whereas I can get hold of one any time I wish.

Solong,
/s/ Roman
Roman

P. S. I received a letter from Eleanor Angsten today. She has Roy Miller's job. And Kay Ferguson has a job in the accounting department. Gosh if this war didn't take me out of the office and the others still went out of it like they have I would have had a peach of a job by now. Maybe I will be one of the first back and will be able to get something good out of the place yet. That is if I ever get back from this mess and if I will return to RH&R.

/s/ Ro
Ro