Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen

Bob Greene

Mar 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

I read this book and loved it. My mother grew up in Brule Nebraska and right after I finished it, and before she disappeared in Alzheimer's, we were able to talk about that time. She remembered all the excitement of being able to go help out the "boys." They all took it very seriously. What I enjoyed about this book is it gave me some more insight into what my mother's generation was like; those who didn't go to war. Quite frankly, I have enjoyed every Bob Greene book I ever read and miss his columns.

About the author

Award-winning journalist Bob Greene is the author of six New York Times bestsellers and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Op-Ed page.