Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
August 8, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara,

Besides the package with the watch I received your letters dated the 27th and 28th of July. This morning your two letters of the 29th arrived. I received a letter from Eleanor Angsten this morning also.

I hope that by this time next week I can tell you that the wrist watch has also arrived. And then the week after that the French Books.

I'm glad that you have finally decided to use your birthday money on something for yourself right away instead of waiting a half a year before even touching it. I hope too that the money has come by this time. That would be awful if we had to wait for the money a half a year. Some of the fellows have received letters from home saying the money has finally arrived after some four weeks. I will wait a few more weeks and if you do not receive it by then I will do some inquiring as to its whereabouts.

Wouldn't that be swell if some miracle would switch time back in its tracks and you would be looking out the back porch window, see a boy ride a bicycle into the yard and suddenly time would have become 1938 or 1939 instead of 1943? Or maybe if we could turn some dial and make time move ahead a lot faster it would be just as well. You would be still looking out the back porch window and a helicopter - 1950 - model - would come floating down on top of the garage roof. And the next minute we would both be off for a short jaunt to Milwaukee.

Gosh, Bill Breiger is the luckiest soldier in uniform. Can you beat that, meeting Lana Turner! She has long since displaced Greta Garbo as my favorite actress. If she got to talk to Bill long enough, I'll bet he handed her a laugh or two with his catching personality. The movies which he could have been selected for might be Army Training Films. Ever since we were inducted into the Army last November we have seen Training Film after Training Film and even now we run them in conjunction with the regular movie of the night. Actual soldiers take part in those films demonstrating everything from close order drill to action under simulated combat conditions. The Army Signal Corps puts out all these pictures and I imagine that many of their studios are former Hollywood lots. In that case it is hardly likely that the public will ever see William Breiger the actor.

An incident such as happened in the case of Mae Kopielski's nephew will not occur again if the Army can help it. A new regulation has been issued saying that all personnel alerted for overseas duty will be given a furlough if they have not had one within six months or if they have been inducted less than six months before that time and have not had a furlough providing such furloughs will not disrupt military contingencies. I think that is one of the best regulations passed yet. It will not only send the soldier away in a better state of mind but it will also make the folks at home feel better to know that they have seen their soldier in uniform before he went away.

Gee, it was too bad that those films you took inside the house at my "birthday party" had to turn out blank. I had never dreamed of you taking pictures like that of my cake and photograph and I would have been tickled pink to receive it had it turned out alright. It is a simple procedure to set the camera for taking pictures indoors. Right above the little switch for snapping the picture is another piece of metal. It is larger than the picture snap. Pull this snap out as far as it will go and then take your time picture. This is what the snap does. It prevents the shutter in front of the lens from closing as long as you hold that little snap down. After fifteen to thirty seconds (depending upon the light), you release the little snap and the shutter closes. When you are thru taking time photos, push the larger piece of metal back in place. There is a metal pieced at the top but that controls the amount of light.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman