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

My letters to you of recent days have been but a series of complaints and this one is no different. It is a good thing that I got off a word before suppertime because I would never had the ambition to write very much now. It is eleven o'clock and I have just come back from the movie machine after showing "The Human Comedy" right here in our own backyard. When I show the movie at the other outfit and have to ride up and back, I have more time to myself after the show. It seems that some outside influence or force is trying to crowd me out of my spare time. Do you realize that it was a week ago Monday and Tuesday when I received those extra good letters from Ray, Dolores and Uncle Jack? Letters which I felt like answering on the spot but found myself too busy to do so either at that time or at any time since then. Today I promised myself that in the two hours between 9 and 11 after the show I would write not only a letter to you but a letter to Delores. Now it is luck that I even get to finish this one.

The day is 24 hours long and I have been sleeping just about 5 of them. It seems that two or three things you say in the letters of September 2 and 5 which I received today have direct bearing on events which transpired today. You mention that you too would like to see me home sleeping in my bed even if at times it was rather hard trying to get me up. The last few mornings I have been wondering how I can keep on waking up out of my sleep to stand Reveille after having hit the hay but such a short time before. If I didn't have to stand Reveille I would skip eating breakfast and thus be able to add about an hour and a half to my night's rest.

The other thing you mentioned was in your comment on that evening of the few weeks back when I gave the news comments and the various little things went wrong with the show you said that every so often things do have to be bungled up. Well, tonight was that every so often. If was four reel movie and the second reel was all shot to pieces. If that film skipped the sprocket hoes once it did it ten times. Not only was I disgusted with the thing but you can imagine how the audience of soldiers felt about it. The Lt Yantis came in after the show and he and I stayed in that booth over an hour repairing the damaged film which literally had been torn to bits by both our use and previous use.

That must be a new wartime permanent wave you had, eh? It seems funny that these substitutes created for wartime use sometimes turn out to be better than the real thing and they hold their own after the war. But isn't $12.50 a steep price for a hairdo? Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but I thought you people used to get the best permanents for about $7 and only the extravagant styles cost as high as $10.

It begins to look as if Harold is going to be stationed close to home for the duration of the war. At least that is one thing which, although I would have gladly dispensed with, I can say when this is all over. I can say I was overseas. Whether anything or not actually happened doesn't seem to matter to the folks, it is just the glamour and romance connected to the overseas angle. Did I ever tell you about the act Jack Molyneaux plans to pull whenever anyone asks him about his experiences in the Second Great War? He is going to shudder, close his eyes, shake his head in anguish, hold his hand up in protest and say "Please, please I don't want to talk about it." I have to laugh everytime he rehearses the act for me.

O yes, about George Nemec, I guess that story about his just going for his blood test will string out for as long as it is good for. It sure makes Mrs Boyer mad to see one Nemec in such a soft spot and the other not even in while her one son is dead and the other away from home. She will never be convinced that there isn't something putrid in Cicero.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman