| Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen Contributor(s): Greene, Bob (Author) |
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ISBN: 006008197X ISBN-13: 9780060081973 Publisher: William Morrow & Company OUR PRICE: $16.19 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2003 Annotation: In search of "the best America there ever was, " Greene discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable in this true tale of small-town Americans who banded together to warm the lives of lonely young men being sent off to war. 8-page photo insert. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - Social Science | Volunteer Work - History | Military - United States |
| Dewey: 940.537 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.3" W x 7.9" (0.45 lbs) 288 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Greene, Bob: - 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. |