Once upon a Town by Bob Green - Book Report/Review Example

Once upon a Town: the Miracle of the North Platte Canteen is a book by Bob Greene, an American award winning journalist and bestselling author. It tells the story of a canteen by the railroad in a small town located in Nebraska, whereby each train carrying soldiers either on their way to the Pacific Ocean coast or the second world war in Europe made a stop for a few minutes in the north plate. The people, who lived in that town and numerous other towns, made it their duty to entertain and feed the millions of soldiers who passed through the canteen on their respective destinations. The selfless contributions by the residents of the North Platte were immensely appreciated by the soldiers, many of whom had never been to other places apart from their homes. This paper will evaluate the structure and organizations of the arguments within the book in a way that analyses the effects of the home front on the American social, economic, and political spheres during the Second World War (Wee 88). One of the arguments that author Greene put forward in the book is that the residents of the North Platte contributed a lot in assisting the soldiers who passed through their town by providing them with food and entertainment, in the process giving them moral support as they went to fight for America in the second world war. North Platte is a city located in Nebraska, and the canteen being talked about in the story used to be the Union Pacific Railroad Depot that existed there at the time. As much as there were several canteens located in the area during the war, the North Platte canteen must have been the earliest one; having started on December 1941, just a few days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Rumors had spread that a troop train that used to carry American soldiers across the United States on their way to war was coming towards the North Platte Union Pacific Railroad Depot carrying soldiers from Nebraska. Therefore, the families living in the town purchased gifts and cigarettes, and prepared food parcels as they waited for their arrival (Greene 124). However, to the surprise of the families, the troop train turned out to not to be carrying soldiers from Nebraska, but those from Kansas. Under normal circumstances, the families would have been expected to keep the gifts they had prepared to themselves and wait until soldiers from their own hometown to arrive so that they can share the gift with them. However, this was not the case, as instead of keeping the goodies, they decided to share with the Kansas soldiers any way. This is an excellent example of how the American home front assisted their soldiers during the Second World War. North Platte residents figured out that even although the Kansas soldiers were not from their hometown, they fought for the entire United States. Consequently, there was no need refusing to help them just because they were from another state. This had an effect of giving moral support to the American soldiers, and contributed a lot to the eventual victory (Greene 214). From December 1945 to April 1946, the North Platte canteen operated almost continuously 24 hours a day seven days a week. Over six million soldiers were served at the canteen on their way to war. Author Greene’s argument that the canteen together with the North Platte residents contributed a lot in giving moral support to soldiers is boosted by the fact that such a thing would not have happened in today’s world. It is highly unlikely that business people would have agreed such generosity that did not involve making any profit or gains. Today’s people would undoubtedly have wanted to make a profit out of it, and would not have cared whether or not the soldiers they were serving were fighting for their own country. The women mentioned in the book used their own rations, supplies, energy, and time, without getting in return. The volunteers did not expect anything in return, their only wish being that the soldiers have a moment of happiness. That is exactly the canteen was supposed to be, an oasis in the middle of the nation (Greene 243). Despite the fact that the trains stopped for a period of about ten minutes, the memory of North Platte residents greeting soldiers with smiling faces and the home-cooked food stayed with them for a long time. The North Platte residents even went to the extent of taking letters from the soldiers and offering to post for them; offering to use their own money to buy stamps and send them off. On their part, their soldiers showed their gratitude by sending letters back to North Platte, not to one particular person, but to the entire town itself, appreciating the hospitality that the people showed to them (Greene 272). According to the author, residents of North Platte and outskirts of Nebraska offered hospitality for the passing soldiers. Churches would gather groups together and carpool towards the canteen. Residents from all over the towns would contribute what they could afford and have it sent to the canteen. Some schools even made popcorn balls with girls’ addresses on them so that male soldier could have someone to write back to. Author Green succeeds in putting forward the argument that today the trust is no longer there, and people would certainly not put such an effort as the North Platte residents did at the time. This shows that during the Second World War, American citizens contributed a lot to the eventual victory of American and allied forces (Greene 164). In conclusion, Once upon a Town: the Miracle of the North Platte Canteen is seen as a book that presents perfect arguments on the role of the home front in the Second World War. The author clearly describes the lengths that the Americans would go through to ensure that their soldiers achieved victory in all their battles. By giving an example of the north Plate residents and their canteen, the author perfectly presents an argument that the war was not fought and won by the soldiers only, but by the ordinary citizens who boosted the morale of the soldiers. Works Cited Green, Bob. Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen. New York: HarperCollins. 2003. Print Wee, Robert James. World War 2 in Literature for Youth. New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. 2004. Print Read More