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Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5378282
EAN: 9780060081973
ISBN: 006008197X
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: May 01, 2003
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: May 06, 2003
Studio: Harper Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Millions of American soldiers, many of whom had never left their hometowns before, crossed the nation by rail during the years of World War II on their way to training camps and distant theaters of battle. In a little town in Nebraska, countless thousands of them met with extraordinary hospitality--the "miracle" of veteran journalist Bob Greene's title. "The best America there ever was. Or at least, whatever might be left of it." So Greene writes of North Platte, now a quiet town along the interstate, its main street all but dead. It was a quiet town then, too, at the outbreak of the war, but still a hive of activity as its citizens gathered to provide, at their own expense, coffee, sandwiches, books, playing cards, and time to the scared young men who rolled through by the trainload, "telling them that their country cared about them." Greene's pages are full of the voices of those who were there, soldiers and townspeople alike, who took part in what amounted to small acts of heroism, given the shortages and rationing of the time. Greene, generous in his praise if rather disheartened by the modern world, against which he contrasts the past, turns in a remarkable account of the home front. It deserves the widest audience. ---Gregory McNamee
In search of "the best America there ever was," bestselling author and award-winning journalist Bob Greene finds it in a small Nebraska town few people pass through today—a town where Greene discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons.
During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen.
Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains community of only 12,000 people provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time the war ended.
In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Required Reading
I bought this book because it was required reading for one complete grade in our high school of 2500 students last summer. I felt that if it was read by them, I should read it. I enjoyed learning about a part of history with which I was not familiar. Parts of the book moved a little slow but it is an easy read and worth the time. I especially enjoyed the interview snippets with the women who worked at the canteen and the servicemen who visited the canteen. I am in awe of the way North Platte ... Read More
Rating:  - Book
This is a great read. I learned something I didn't know went on in this time of history.
Rating: - Forgotten History
This book is about the inspirational story of North Platte, Nebraska, a town that served as a brief haven for millions of World War II American soldiers. From Christmas Day 1941 until the end of the war, the residents welcomed every troop train with food, drink, magazines and words of encouragement. This was a brief moment of time that sustained these soldiers when they were away from their families performing their duty. And that they still remember and appreciate to this very day.
Rating:  - nostalgic look at the past
This was a book I read for my book club. I liked the story yet I felt it became repetitive. I think I would like to see more pictures and a few less stories. I found myself wishing the book would end and kept going back to the photos.
Rating: - Love the story, despise the writing and the writer
Six million boiled eggs, more or less.
Fried chicken, sandwiches, cookies, milk, birthday cakes, chewing gum, candy, matches for six million.
North Platte, a small town in western Nebraska, was a water stop for steam locomotives. From a few days after Pearl Harbor until 1946, the people of North Platte and the surrounding farm and ranch country of Nebraska and eastern Colorado met every troop train that came through town.
Dozens, sometimes, in a single day, at any hour. During the ... Read More
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