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Once Upon a Town (2002)

von Bob Greene

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4341557,217 (3.75)21
History. Sociology. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska on troop trains, en route to Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen â?? a place where soldiers could enjoy coffee, music, home-cooked food, magazines, and friendly conversation during a stopover that lasted only a few minutes. It provided homesick military personnel with the encouragement they needed to help them through the difficult times ahead. Every day of the war, the Canteen â?? staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers from the community of twelve thousand â?? was open from 5 a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. By war's end they provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food to more than six million GIs.

Based on interviews with North Platte residents and the GIs who once passed through, Bob Greene unearths and reveals a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated s… (mehr)

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Once Upon a Town, The Story of the North Platte Canteen, by Bob Greene (pp 257). Don’t read this book if you fear tears welling up in your eyes at various points. This was a bestselling book when published, and it deserves to be in every high school mandatory reading list. The town of Platte River is about six and a half hours drive from Denver (where I live), and probably triple that during WWII when there were no interstate highways, and cars ran at much lower speeds on local roads. In this day and age, it’s a world away. At the advent of the war, Platte River residents began giving away food, refreshments, magazines, and smiles (and occasional hugs) to military members traveling across country. Everything was free to the troops during ten to twenty minutes stops for refueling the trains. Over the course of the war, six million troops came through town. And every one was offered the town’s hospitality. The town itself sported only 12,000 residents, some of whom were themselves off to fight. People from 125 towns, some as far away as Colorado, but most from rural Nebraska donated sugar, chickens, pheasant, beef, milk, eggs, cookies, cakes, apples, oranges, magazines. newspapers, bread, themselves and so much more. Few of us alive can understand what this sacrifice, given that wartime rationing limited what people could buy for their own use, let alone to give away. Thousands of women from surrounding towns donated their time to meet every train that came through morning, noon, or night. The military men and smaller numbers of women were treated as if they were sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters of the caring townspeople. They continued this effort until eight months after the war and returning veteran numbers dwindled. The author spent considerable time in Platte River, researching this story, talking to nearly everyone who had a related tale to tell. He even tracked down dozens of veterans living all over the country who retained vivid memories of their ten or twenty minutes in the Canteen. Almost to a person, these seventy, eighty, and ninety year old veterans broke down crying while relating their interactions with the amazing people who were there for them. The impact of their 20 minute acts of kindness stayed with men and women who later fought on Utah Beach, Saipan, and other far flung battlefields. A goodly number of the military members and young women volunteers stayed in touch throughout the war and eventually married. They connected via names and addresses stuck inside popcorn balls, on cards tucked into birthday cakes (every train got one or more, regardless of whether any of the troops had a birthday), and other more conventional means. The town received no funding from the government: it was all donated by philanthropic minded citizens. No other town in America did what Platte River did, and they did it every day for over four years. It’d be nice to say this typified rural wartime America in the 1940s, but even then it was extraordinarily exceptional. This is a wonderful story about thousands of real life hometown heroes doing what they could for young men and women heading off to war. ( )
  wildh2o | Jul 10, 2021 |
5677 Once Upon a Town The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Bob Greene (read 16 Feb 2020)This book, published in 2002, and written by a newspaper columnist who was born in 1947, tells of the canteen in North Platte, Nebraska which from December 1941 till April 1, 1946 met every troop train which came to North Platte,and offered free food and things to the servicemen on the trains. According to the book thousands of servicemen came through North Platte and they all went gaga over how kind the people at the canteen treated them. It is a schmaltzy book, repeating often the words of praise which the recipients of the generosity of the people who operated the canteen spoke of their benefactors, long after the war. One gets the idea of the goodness of the people and the gratitude of the servicemen long before the book ends. I was impressed by what the people of that area of Nebraska accomplished and at times found the book poignant. But I think a more restrained account might have more compelling. ( )
1 abstimmen Schmerguls | Feb 16, 2020 |
A nice little read, I was given this book as a gift many years ago by a teacher who said my writing reminded her of Bob Greene. As nice a compliment I've received.

This collection of stories were each heart-warming, if a little redundant when read as a collection. It certainly engaged in the usual mythologizing about the second World War and the so-called "Greatest Generation"- a collective trait of the American experience I particularly dislike. ( )
  jscape2000 | Jul 5, 2015 |
This book is certainly interesting and it shares accounts I, and probably most people, have never heard before. However, even though each account is amazing and almost brings a tear to your eye, it gets a bit repetitive. ( )
  piersanti | Sep 28, 2014 |
The story brings the historical gem of the North Platte Canteen to light. However, the writing is mawkish and redundant. It's tough to make a whole book out of giving out free food and help to soldiers at the train station. ( )
  brendajanefrank | Jun 22, 2014 |
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On Interstate 80, three or hour hours into the long westward drive across Nebraska, with the sun hovering mercilessly in the midsummer sky on a cloudless and broiling July afternoon, there were moments when I thought there was no way I'd ever find what I had come here to seek: The best America there ever was.
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History. Sociology. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska on troop trains, en route to Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen â?? a place where soldiers could enjoy coffee, music, home-cooked food, magazines, and friendly conversation during a stopover that lasted only a few minutes. It provided homesick military personnel with the encouragement they needed to help them through the difficult times ahead. Every day of the war, the Canteen â?? staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers from the community of twelve thousand â?? was open from 5 a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. By war's end they provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food to more than six million GIs.

Based on interviews with North Platte residents and the GIs who once passed through, Bob Greene unearths and reveals a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated s

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