Bob Greene (2) (1947–)

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.… (más)

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.… (más)