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

The picture "The Fleet's In", was the screwiest, slap-happiest picture I have seen in a long time. Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, William Holden and a comic singer plus a comic dance team all joined together to make it a hodge-podge of nonsense with the story going into secondary importance. In other words, there were belly laughs from beginning to end. The show was held in the big tent and right now a second show is being run off and we can hear the sound of all the craziness.

Good grief, those mosquitoes have been attacking me in droves for the last three days and once again I have bumps all over me. One of the main reasons that the mosquitoes have gotten me is that I have laid off smearing that lotion on. It makes you feel dirty with sweat even though a person has just taken a shower. But I guess such squeamishness should be disregarded when it comes to those bug bites.

That boy Morris Mersing has quite a few tricks up his sleeve. For instance, last night he, John Edie and I were sitting in the big tent expecting the show to be in there, when Mersing sits down to the piano and starts off with the opening chords to Rachmaninoff's Famous Symphony. Can you imagine that? He not only can play the piano but he also plays a trumpet. He is a smart lad as you probably have gathered long before this and what I admire most about him is his ability to concentrate just like Jerry Moro of Junior College days.

By the way, on that day I stored away the tin cans in my foot locker I finally gave my old blue bedroom slippers the heave. Back in Camp White I was able to use them in the barracks when I would go downstairs to the washroom or on Sunday mornings when I would get up late and loll around for awhile before starting the day off. Out here it is a different story and there just haven't been the occasions to use them. Moreover, they were pretty well beat up.

In your last letter you mentioned the silver pennies. Yes, I have seen them many times and had the same confugalty as you have had with them. And just today I read in the Daily News that from now on the mints were going to salvage the copper from cartridges used on the practice ranges of the Army and bring back the old color to the penny. The silver pennies will eventually blacken up so that they will be distinguishable from dimes. So that penny and a Mexican penny have joined the sugar bowl collection of odds and ends, eh? I'll have to thank Uncle Jack for that when I write him a letter.

Yes, I did think that the Mr Muzik you mentioned was from our bank. .However, the name was familiar but not with the person who embezzled the money. Tom Muzik was the name of a fellow who went to Morton Junior at the same time as I did.

This letter will probably be the last one you will receive from me before Christmas so I wish you a right up to the minute Merry Christmas but this time don't eat too much turkey. And, of course, the same Merry Christmas wishes goes to everyone else too, Aunty Florence, Uncle Joe, Uncle Jack, my Dad, Rose, Rosana and etcetera etcetera. It would be foolish to say that probably next Christmas we could all be together again because the way things stack up such an event is highly improbable but in time things will be back to the way they were before the war and we will have our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day once again.

You know, when it is Christmas Eve back home and then again Christmas night, I'm going to take out the picture and the magnifying glass and imagine myself back in the parlor for that little while. Christmas Eve will have those last minute preparations for the next day and maybe Senor G will come over for a while. Then, Christmas Night, they will all be over and I will picture Mr Gonzalez, Mr Infiesta, Jennie, Aunty Florence and you all sitting around the table laughing, talking, joking and having a good time like we always did have.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman