Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
July 2, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara:

There is so much to say that I actually do not know what to start off with. For instance, I received your letter from June 21st today. That is the letter in which you mentioned having finally received the card which the government sent out. You also said you saw the movie "Lost Horizon." I'll bet you any amount of money that without even having seen the picture that this Shangri-La place resembles this country more closely than it does the Rogue Valley. In Oregon we had the Agate Desert and the numerous peneplains whereas here the scenery is something hard to explain in that just about everything is part of a hill or a mountain and there is very very little flat space. One sentence censored.

Now comes the sorry confession. First of all, the fellow paid me the five dollars he owed to me. Second of all, I made the thirty dollar money transfer to you for your birthday. Third of all, when I came into my tent this evening there was a miniature crap game going on and I sportingly joined in with one of the loose half dollars in my pocket. The next minute I was out a half dollar. So what says I, I will gamble for bigger stakes at the game I saw going on down the street aways. Aha, I bet just for the sake of betting and I don't even know what I lost that first three dollars on but it was lost. Then I conserved my last two dollars and only lost it a dollar at a time. Therefore, I am sad to state that your Romeo is very unlucky and is now flat broke without a penny in his pocket and a month until payday. Easy come easy go. Really, I didn't lose anything I planned on having since you have received my total pay. Had I sent you twenty-five and then lost five, I would have felt bad about it. But what gripes me is that every time I "try my luck" that is the way it winds up. Remember the carnivals et al? I used to be winning and then I would say now instead of being methodical about this I will just be like the rest of the fellows and actual gamble. Then, just as now, the money would go poof! And then people have the nerve to say that when I play the system I gamble. You know very well that it is all a matter of averages and the professional who figures them in his favor never intends to lose and it is only the sucker who goes up like I went up tonight and loses his shirt. So much for that sordid story of corruption and vice. So help me, I've raised my right hand and have said "Never again." How can I with no money?

By the way, I came back from a special job this afternoon at seven o'clock this evening and just had time to see the best part of the movie "Casablanca." Boy o boy, that was a swell movie and I enjoyed every bit of it. Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains were the only two actors I recognized. Whoever the girl who had the feminine lead was really OK. That is for good looks. How I arrived at the theater area and in what condition is almost a story in itself and I have not the space left on this form to tell you about it. I am writing two sheets this evening and it will be on the second one.

To backtrack a bit to the sordid once again. Don't feel bad about it for me because (1) money itself as money is valueless to me (2) there isn't anything to spend money on out here anyway except (3) the PX and there I only buy candy which makes me sick so (4) I'll be better off by not eating so much candy.

Solong,
/s/ Roman
Roman

Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
July 2, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara:

This is the second part of today's letter. I walked over to the theater area in total darkness and I almost broke my neck several times stumbling over things but I managed to make it alright. Then I decided to change my position once I was there so I crawled down to the bottom of the hill and started walking through what I thought was a gully or ditch. Whatever it was I soon found out was filled with water and I found myself standing in it knee deep. My shoe hasn't dried out yet. The movie screen is built on one side of a road which runs up a hill while the soldiers sit on the other side on the incline of a hill. Incidentally, we have been renaming things around here after Camp White and that road is named Crater Lake highway which was the main road from Camp White to Medford.

Soldiers really are a thrifty bunch in this war because a very huge percentage of the payroll has been turned back to the finance department for transfer to the States for the soldiers. The company commanders no sooner paid out the dough and here were orderlies and clerks gathering it up again. It's a funny sensation to be walking around with a wad of dough larger than you ever owned in your whole life. It isn't any too pleasant either because you want to get rid of it in a hurry. There were so many bills floating around the personnel office today that it would have actually been possible to take a shovel and shoveled it.

Say, I haven't ever mentioned anything to you about Sgt Cava. Yes, I said Sergeant Cava! Once back at the camp we were in just before leaving the United States he upped and tried to walk out of the office but was not allowed to do so. Finally, just a few days before we left the States he got out and by gosh if the kid didn't carry the old Morton colors high by jumping from Pfc to Sgt. I wonder if the two insurance men are arguing over the respective merits of their sons now.

Can you beat that, though, just as I thought I was going to get at that Army Institute things began popping and there has just been time left in the evenings for these letters and it looks as if it will continue to be that way for the next few days. Beaumont and I have CQ Sunday so I imagine there will be time for some letter writing then. The last time any of us pulled CQ was just before the furloughs. Remember the night before the furloughs started I was the charge of quarters. After that we were so busy that someone was always in the place so there was no need to designate any certain clerk to remain on duty.

Last night I was reminiscing with Larry and it came to me that I love the smell of lumber, the ting and buzz of a saw cutting wood, the singing of a planer, the thump of a wood press, the clatter of a nailing machine and all those old familiar smells and noises of the box shop. Isn't that funny that working in the planning office all around those things gives a person a nostalgia for those things when they are gone?

Although I am down to the end of this second sheet, I know very well I have forgotten many of the things I originally wanted to say to you but maybe I'll catch 'em next time.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman