… voted for future meetings to discontinue serving lunch and give this money to the Canteen fund. … Twenty-six members of the Navy Mothers club met in regular session Monday night … Plans were also made to assist with the Canteen work. The group plans to dispense with luncheons at the close of meetings, using the money for the Canteen fund. Volunteer workers are to see there is a Navy Mother on duty at all times at the Canteen. Daily Bulletin | Jan. 6, 1942 Not only do the men deeply appreciate the things given them, but they later take the trouble to write back to North Platte doubly expressing their thanks. Here is a letter received yesterday, ad- dressed to Misses [Rae] Wilson, Lois Burton, Lily Jensen, LaVon Fairley and Wilma Lannin:
“On behalf of the men of this organization, I wish to express our sincere appreciation for the Christmas spirit shown us by you and other ladies of your city. It was a complete and most pleasant surprise to us when we drew into North Platte on Christmas night to find you there at the station with all those baskets of candy and fruit. “The men of this organization will remember your kindness and thoughtfulness for many Christmases to come.” The letter was signed by E.M. Teeter, Capt., 48th QM [Quartermaster] regiment. … Donations of money and other material have come from many sources and localities. Contributions were received yesterday from Anselmo and Wallace. This first-person Bulletin account introduced the first of the Canteen’s two best-known treats: popcorn balls. Some “platform girls” secretly put names and addresses of themselves or female colleagues inside the balls, offering the soldiers pen pals. Sometimes, as Chapter 5 will show, this led to marriages.
never before had I realized just how worthy a cause it really is. As the temperature fell to many degrees below zero, loyal North Platte women and girls, loaded down with baskets of fruit, popcorn balls, ciga- rettes, candies and newspapers stood on the plat- form and welcomed men in the various branches of the service with gifts and good wishes. Miss Rae Wilson, dynamic leader of the group, covered more ground than your correspondent believed surrounded the depot. Trying desperately to keep up with her, minus a case of frozen feet, and minus a hat (taken by one of Uncle Sam’s boys), I learned for the first time, since the out- break of war, just how much is really being done by this Canteen group to help keep up the morale of the men in uniform. The men themselves couldn’t believe the good things that happened to them in North Platte. They cluttered around us with various questions about our city, about the change of time [from Central to Mountain] and how it happened all this was being done for them. As the troop train pulled away, the cry was “keep ’em flyin’,” and somehow, your correspondent believes we all will. “Prowler,” Daily Bulletin | Jan. 8, 1942 Miss Patsy Loncar was the belle of the Canteen Tuesday evening. … Proving that nothing is too good for the man in the uniform, upon the insis- tence of several of the boys, Miss Loncar left her red hair ribbon for the troop.
Daily Bulletin | Jan. 7, 1942 By Mary Ellen Gutherless
The fellow who first said, “There’s something about a soldier,” wasn’t kidding. Last evening, armed with notebook and pencil, I went to the local depot to help the Canteen girls in their worthy work. And
Serving as “platform girls,” Opal Smith, left, and Canteen originator Rae Wilson mingle with service members on the Union Pacific Depot platform in 1942.
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