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

I suppose I shouldn't complain but just getting three letters and one newspaper out of a mail of five full sacks is a bit disappointing. I fully expected to receive the Atlas and the Christmas cards today but no such luck.

The Daily News is dated the 7th of October and is the first one with a report on a World Series game play by play. It also tells about the Pat Nash wake.

I wonder if the flat which Anna has finally rented isn't one of them that we looked at in our hunt for apartments last year? This is going to be good with her living so close by. Sure as shooting, you are going to be running into her every so often. It will be another Aunty Stella - Aunty Lilly affair with Anna playing the part of Aunty Lilly, of course. I'm mad at Uncle Jack. He might as well have stayed out in California if he is going to live with her instead of coming home to live.

O yes, your letters of the 29th and 30th were two of three which I received. The other one was from the honorable Edward J. Hughes, Secretary of State of Illinois informing me that there are no elections in Illinois during 1943 but that the primary will be held in April at which time I will have to signify my party and the National Elections in November 1944.

No, I didn't see "The Constant Nymph" either here or back in Oregon. The picture which I saw Alexis Smith in was "Gentleman Jim" with Errol Flynn. As you have probably noticed, we are not getting first run pictures since we have been overseas with the exception of "Stage Door Canteen".

The show went off without incident. At the beginning of the first and second reel there was a break in the sprocket holes but it was just a matter of seconds to adjust the machine in both cases. What I had trouble with was the mice. I had brought a box of vanilla wafers up to the booth with me and threw the empty box in the waste paper basket. That seemed to be the signal for a general feast and soon two mice were darting back and forth over the floor. I would chase them away but they always came back for more. But that isn't all, because while the show was going on a mouse crawled right past my arms and almost crawled on another fellow's shoulder before my movement scared him off. That space underneath the floor of the projection booth has provided an ideal nest for the rats and mice. For the most part we have only seen these very small mice but on several occasions I walked into the office to find the larger variety roaming around on the floor. It will be a relief to get back into the city after this war is over to a place where the rats are civilized and for the most part know that their place is not in the home.

Coming back to the office this evening, I ran into another feast. Campbell had another can of tuna fish, Ralph provided the orange juice and I had the vanilla wafers. Then to top that off, we discovered that somebody had brought in a bottle of Coca Cola syrup and we treated ourselves to a coke apiece.

Incidentally, after reading the news about Amos and Andy being a war casualty in the Reader's Digest some while back, I noticed in the Daily News that they are back on the air once more.

There wasn't any issue of the South Pacific Daily News today and I didn't get to hear the evening's news bulletins so there is no way of confirming or discounting the rumors received a short time ago that the second front had started across the English Channel. I also heard today that Ben Bernie died.

Klaas Land, who I haven't mentioned for quite some time, has gone to town several times and each time he tried to engage some of the natives in conversation. According to him, they are very reluctant to talk to soldiers in French. You see, he was born and raised in Europe and it seems easy for him to pick up a language just by trying to speak it.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman