Rev. B. Schwarz of the Zion Lutheran church packed the large list of supplies that had been prepared in boxes and boarded the train for North Platte early yesterday morning, arriving with the first group of service men from the west. Telegraph | Feb. 15, 1944 Undaunted by the bad roads [and] tire and gaso- line shortage, the Chappell community loaded fourteen ladies and men into a pickup truck and two automobiles and reported for work at the Canteen today. While the group is sponsored by the Victory club, the workers and gifts are from the com- munity at large, Mrs. From, chairman, said today. Included in the large list of items were 26 cakes, most of them birthday, 14 quarts pickles, 26 quarts cream, 22 pounds butter, 45 dozen doughnuts, 32
dozen cookies, 30 dozen cup cakes, 21 quarts salad dressing, seven pressed chickens, three gallons milk and $55 for the purchase of other supplies. Though uniforms had been donated for Canteen workers two years earlier, they apparently weren’t being used much by 1944. In one soldier’s opin- ion, that was a good thing. Telegraph | March 3, 1944 A soldier visiting at the Canteen yesterday ad- vanced a new and logical reason why the North Platte Canteen was so popular with the men and women in the services. He said that the boys could not help notice at once that the women were all dressed in their regular clothing, wearing aprons and just beam- ing with home hospitality that at once brought thoughts of mothers at home. In all other canteens that he had visited, the ladies all wore uniforms of some type, he said, and “we get so tired of looking at uniforms that those in the canteen takes some of the edge off of the services they render.” Women from North Platte’s Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. office not only worked regu- larly at the Canteen but also “pay the phone bill each month,” The Daily Bulletin had noted on Groundhog Day 1944. After William Jeffers relieved the Canteen of janitorial chores, other
North Platte businesses took additional worries off the Canteen’s plate.
Telegraph | March 6, 1944 The Dickey Laundry rendered the Canteen a bill for laundry service for the year of 1943 amounting to $527.45. The bill was marked paid with this note on the bottom: “and very glad to have been in a posi- tion to donate this amount for so worthy a cause.” The Northwestern Bell Telephone company, traf- fic and commercial departments, and the A.T.& T. plant and Western Electric departments con- tributed $55 in cash and eight birthday cakes at the Canteen Sunday. Fifty members of the groups were serving. Telegraph | March 7, 1944 A working companion to the new dish washer recently installed by the Union Pacific was placed in the back room of the Canteen Monday. A large electric store-size ice box has been donated by the Sixth Street market for the duration. The large ice box was moved and placed on the floor by the Cohagen Transfer company free of charge. Daily Bulletin | March 9, 1944 The combination radio-phonograph donated by KODY listeners was installed in the Canteen yes- terday. The radio has been placed in the Canteen for the entertainment of the Canteen workers and of the service men and women passing through
Canteen Secretary Jessie Hutchens works at her desk in this March 1944 photo while Commander Helen Christ looks over her right shoulder.
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