Once Upon A Town

Last Tuesday night I was searching for something to read in the historical fiction genre at the Library. I wasn't having much luck and was about to go home empty handed when my eyes feel upon an interesting title, 'Once Upon A Town' by Bob Greene. Now Greene is an interesting author who sometimes ventures out into the oft forgotten; and in this book he does.
Greene takes us to a little known town, and even lesser known historical incident. NOrth Platte, Nebraska. At the beginning of America's involvement in the WWII there was the constant transfer of men in training and assignment moving from one coast to another by rail. This got my attention because of my mother's family history of working on the railroad, and the fact that all these military trains ran through the little known town of North Platte, and would stop there for about 10/20minutes to take on water for the steam engine.
One day the townspeople heard that a military train was coming through with boys from Nebraska going to their assigned places, and the woman thought it would be nice to make up little baskets with apples, chocolates, etc. to give each boy. Well, the train wasn't filled with soldier boys from Nebraska - they were from Kansas - but the ladies passed out the baskets anyway; figuring this was their way to contribute to the war .............. and from that the idea was birthed to meet every military train and make available to every soldier boy a canteen of goodies and home cooked foods. The depot was renamed the North Platte Canteen; and while the train was taking on water the soldier boys flooded the canteen, all the food was free, there was even a piano where some of the boys played and danced with the local girls there helping out - even some marriages later came about because of this enterprise. I don't want to tell you too much because then you won't read the book..... but for five years, regardless of the weather, and every day those five years, no holidays missed, over 6 million soldier boys visited that canteen. This is an incredible story that will probably never be repeated in the history of our great country ... and Greene gets in contact with many of the survivors from both the town and soldier boys, especially touching are the memories of soldiers who had that experience! If the author hadn't written this book it would have been a piece of Americana that shows how people come together, how they sacrifice; one soldier said that they were aware many of those who gave to them were sacrificing their own food rations for them. Its an incredible story which reaffirms the goodness of our country that often gets overlooked because of political and cultural greed. ENJOY
GREENE,Bob. Once Upon A Town: The Miracle of North Platte Canteen. 2002, HarperCollins Publisher, New York, New York. ISBN: 0060081961