By 6:30, most business places were closed and preparations were made to observe today as V-J Day in North Platte. No parade has been planned, but impromptu snake parades were formed about the streets last night as celebrants cheered the welcome news. Telegraph | Aug. 15, 1945 (actual date) The extemporaneous celebration was unprecedent- ed in its proportions as ninety percent of North Platte’s population swarmed to the downtown section, forming impromptu parades, building bonfires and shouting and singing their joy. Horsemen carrying flags appeared, and … men and women fell in behind them to form a parade. Cars were suddenly painted with signs, plastered with the “Peace” headlines of the North Platte Telegraph Extra and jangling with the cans tied on their bumpers. The cars were overloaded as groups of people jumped on the running boards, fend- ers and bumpers, riding a short way, only to spy another car with an eye for “attack.” At the Canteen train after train arrived with servicemen who had to be fed, but [they] formed snake dances in the dining room and listened to snatches of radio reports between their almost continuous shouting, singing and dancing. Although the crowds downtown began to thin out around 11:00 p.m., the celebrations were not terminated but transferred to homes to be contin- ued far into the night.
Volunteers wave goodbye to soldiers as they depart from their stop at the Canteen.
Business houses began shooing patrons out as soon as the United Press flash became known. Streets were filled with motorists and pedestrians alike. The Army Signal Corps photographing crew set up at Sixth and Dewey to capture the first hilari- ous scenes of North Platte’s observance of the [end of the] worst war of all times. Traffic was jammed. Firecrackers popped, smiles and waving hands were on all sides and the cameras ground on, to provide a fitting finale for the film of Nebraska built around the North Platte Canteen.
The back page of The Telegraph’s next regular edition — also dated Aug. 15 — duplicated the front page of the extra. The Daily Bulletin’s Aug. 15 front page said it all.
Daily Bulletin | Aug. 15, 1945 By Larry Hayes
A few minutes after 6 o’clock, North Platte promptly went mad. Residents poured into the loop district as whistles shrilled, bells rang and horns squawked.
104 CANTEEN: AS IT HAPPENED
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