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

The show is over but the melody lingers on. "Cat People" with Simone Simon was a spooky picture if there ever was one. I don't know if you have seen it or heard about it but she comes from some village in the Serbian mountains (the same part of the country that produced Dracula and Frankenstein) where the people were evil and had the curse of the cat upon them. She is supposed to turn into a panther if she becomes jealous, angry or if she kisses the man she loves. There were some exceptionally mysterious and hair-raising scenes in the picture where it shows that she might have changed from woman to beast. It never shows the actual transition as in the Jekyll-Hyde story or the Wolf Man episode.

The USO show consisted of a three man singing team who were very good although I didn't pay any too much attention to them as I sat in the projection booth reading a Newsweek magazine. Just plain singing and music such as they had on their repertoire doesn't make me want to watch them. As long as I can hear the sound I can still read a magazine and appreciate them. That is something like listening to the radio and doing your homework at the same time.

Unfortunately, I am not able to say that I received a package this evening. Joe Bauer lives in Elmhurst, yet he received a package at mail call which was mailed September 24 which is exactly eight days after you mailed the first package to me. Larry Isaacson's wife also mailed him a package on the l6th and that hasn't arrived here either. Either those packages are coming on a much slower ship or else the darn thing is at the bottom of the ocean.

I can't understand why I am so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open to write this. Perhaps it is the enervating heat of our Spring which is causing this tiredness. I'll be resting and thinking of something and before I know it my thoughts are actually going around in dreams. I suppose you've had something similar happen to you when I tried to keep you awake with my chatter way late at night when you were waiting for Aunty Florence to wake up so that you could go to bed. Thoughts which one moment were logical and connected suddenly lose all their bounds and become fantastic and irrelevant.

Almost all the tents in the company were gigged in today's inspection but somehow both Larry's tent and my tent escaped from the gig list. The only thing today's list amounted to was that tomorrow morning those tents that were gigged must stand another inspection. These inspections really eat into your time because you try to get everything just so nice and perfect whereas ordinarily you spend your time making the place presentable and letting it go at that. It is the difference between immaculateness and presentableness which takes the time.

1st Sgt Driscoll says that the type of three day pass which would prove to be the most enjoyable would be the fishing trip even though you don't catch any fish. The kind of fishing which I think I would enjoy is to bait a line, set it up by itself and then sit down next to it under a cool shady tree to read a book and munch such delicacies as candy bars or fruit..

I thought it was a military secret about the food situation but I notice in the list of things published that Southwest Pacific Theater soldiers would like for Christmas is a tall cold glass of milk. I thought we were peculiar in not having fresh milk but it looks like no overseas soldiers taste of it. Milk is probably one of the things I miss most in the food line since being away from the States. I wonder, too, if the sudden stoppage of that in my diet has in anyway affected my health?

I'm going to try and write a few letters to other people tomorrow but will not count on it until I see the completed letter in front of me.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman