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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.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780060081973","publication_date":"20030506","publisher":"HarperCollins","slug":"once-upon-a-town","subtitle":"The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen","title":"Once Upon a Town"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7759,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. State & Local History","score":0.7745,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.7564,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7759,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. State & Local History","score":0.7745,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.7564,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027100","confidence_band":"high","label":"World War II History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"high","label":"U.S. Military History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027370","confidence_band":"high","label":"World War II: European Theater","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036010","confidence_band":"high","label":"U.S. State & Local History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"high","label":"19th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036060","confidence_band":"high","label":"20th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS038000","confidence_band":"high","label":"The Americas History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PSY036000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Mental Health","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Midwest History","score":0.7759,"slug":"midwest-history"},{"label":"U.S. State & Local History","score":0.7745,"slug":"u-s-state-local-history"},{"label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.7564,"slug":"u-s-military-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in World War II home-front history","Readers drawn to eyewitness accounts of local volunteer efforts"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Tom Brokaw"],"book_id":"9780593743881","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593743881.jpg?v=6c3c947a692fcc3e","score":0.6843,"title":"Never Give Up","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593743881"},{"authors":["Molly Guptill Manning"],"book_id":"9780544570405","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780544570405.jpg?v=dd4f0fcd282e1cb0","score":0.6832,"title":"When Books Went to War","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780544570405"},{"authors":["Anton Myrer","Carlo D'Este"],"book_id":"9780062221629","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062221629.jpg?v=2107d0f8082d80be","score":0.6688,"title":"Once an Eagle","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062221629"},{"authors":["Tom Brokaw"],"book_id":"9780812975291","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812975291.jpg?v=b71fb3b8929e22fb","score":0.6687,"title":"The Greatest Generation","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812975291"},{"authors":["Jake Wood"],"book_id":"9780593189351","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593189351.jpg?v=4c5a2bd5bf854344","score":0.668,"title":"Once a Warrior","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593189351"},{"authors":["Stephen E. 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