Rosalie Lippincott Special Guest Speaker at Lone Tree Readers Book Discussion Group

Rosalie Lippincott was the special guest speaker at the April Lone Tree Readers Book Discussion Group meeting.  The book that was discussed was Bob Green’s book entitled “Once Upon a Town:  the Miracle of the North Platte Canteen”.   Mrs. Lippincott spoke about her experiences as a volunteer at the canteen.

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.

The library has copies of the book available, if you would like to check one out.  We also have a DVD entitled “The Canteen Spirit” which has also had good reviews by library patrons.

 

 

 

3 comments

  • BOB FORTELNY

    Just wanted to say how much I appreciated the DVD Canteen Spirit. I want to thank you for being there for all those boys during WWII. I have read the book Once Upon a Town also and just can’t get enough of how much you all did and cared. You all are very special people. Bob Fortelny

    • centralcity

      Thanks for your comments Bob. Our library is glad to be able to provide copies of the DVD and the book to our patrons (so they can find out more information about those wonderful people). 🙂

    • Rosalie Lippincott

      Bob: I love telling the story of the North Platte Canteen. There aren’t many of us left with first hand memory of this “miracle” place. Thank You Rosalie

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