Status
Call number
Publication
Description
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 �?? 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 �?? staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers from the community of twelve thousand �?? 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… (more)
User reviews
The framing story about modern day North Platte is interesting too. It is strange to see a town I take so for granted through an outsider's eyes.
I gave a copy of this book to my 80-year-old father to read. He cried.
The people that Green tracks down, those who cooked, drove miles to deliver food on their assigned day, the soldiers who remember the miracle and joy of the North Platte Canteen to this day -- these are wonderful memories shared in a respectful and lovely book.
The town heard that a troop train filled with soldiers from Nebraska was due to stop for ten minutes at the North Platte station. A group of women got together and brought food,
The fault doesn't lie with the event, but with Greene who doesn't tell the story very well. Most of the book is told through long narrations by soldiers and
He also veers into tangents that he manages to very loosely connect to the real story, but most of them are hollow and seem like he is just filling space. This would have worked as "Smithsonian Magazine" article, but there isn't enough to sustain interest through 250+ pages.
Another thing that bothered me was the premise that this was somehow some magical thing that took place in "the good old days" and that these types of things never, ever, ever take place now. Murder and mayhem are not just 21st Century phenomena and true heartfelt charity was not reserved to World War II era Nebraska. We've always been this way; good and bad. Dump the dewey eyed hyperbole.
This collection of stories were each heart-warming, if a little redundant when read as a collection. It certainly engaged in the usual