Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
August 20, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara,

The movie picture this evening was "Hit Parade of 1943" but it certainly wasn't much of a hit. John Carroll and Susan Hayward played the principal roles with Gail Patrick as a runner up. The plot of the story was that John Carroll was a four flusher who deliberately claimed credit for all of Susan Hayward's songs. She is building him up for a knife in the back but falls in love with him. That is the part that is no good because the fellow is absolutely no good himself yet she forgives all he has done. There was an excellent short about "The Man Who Changed the World". It was a dip into history and the invention of the spinning jenny by Robert Hargrave.

Steinhauser was the driver once again. He is a very careful driver for a fellow of his age. We were all rather silent during the trip both ways. It seems funny to ride and ride and ride without saying much of anything.

By the way, did you read that the almost total eclipse of the moon which I spoke of the other day was instrumental in aiding the Axis forces in clearing their troops from the Massina area just before the fall of Sicily? The Allies had the advantage of an unusual fog at Dunkirk and now the Axis had the advantage of a lunar eclipse during their Massina

Gee whiz, but time seems to be dragging along. The days are passing by so slowly that it seems we have been here for years already. I have an awful tired feeling and wish the war was over so that I could come home to sleep. I just want to lay down and sleep forever and ever. Sometimes I wish that I could just suddenly forget the present and wake up in that future time when peace shall have come again. All during the pre-war years I seemed to have been waiting and waiting for something that never came. And I used to wonder what the future held in store. Now there is this life we lead today. A life in which we are waiting but now it is waiting with a purpose.

Larry Isaacson is making me sick always asking me how to spell words. He knows I am writing this so it is not talking behind his back. I haven't been able to write more than two minutes without him asking, "Hey, Ro, how do you spell ..." I really should forgive the fellow because he worked hard all day today and is in no condition to think about how to spell words. And it is so much easier to ask the next fellow. I just told him he is forgiven his transgression.

The cookies we had today were fig bars and cheese bits. Forgosh, the Sergeant Major of the First Battalion Headquarters, says that stale fig bars usually have worms in them but I said as long as I could eat the package of them without seeing the worms, it wouldn't bother me. Then I related him the incident concerning the raisins which Anita had advised me not to buy and which turned out to have worms in them. Say, here I was talking about Anita at 1 o'clock and at 8 o'clock I was reading a letter from her. Incidentally, she calls me "Dear 'No-Mail' Roman" and spends the first paragraph of her letter telling me how I owe her six letters and how she doesn't even know whether I received the ones she sent.

Now that I know how to play several bars of several songs on the piano I ought to make a little notebook of them so that I will not forget how they go. Years ago I could play "Indian Love Call" and "Show Me the Way to Go Home" but now I don't know the first note of either of them. With a little notebook of the notes I will never forget them.

Last night Larry and I argued over what a wife should be like and what a husband should be like and now tonight we almost started an all night discussion on whether or not you should address your wife's parents as "Mom and Dad". I said no and he said yes.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman