North Platte. Station KODY started the radio fund with a donation of $25. The total amount col- lected was $125.63. An inscription will be placed on the radio.
with the help of several buddies with open mouths and hungry expressions escorted their pal and the cake onto the car. From the 103 cakes presented (not counting yesterday), the Kinsmans have received 97 cards of appreciation from men and women in the services from all parts of the country. Holyoke, Colorado, lies about 110 miles south and west of North Platte. When Navy Mothers from there served at the Canteen, their town be- came the southwestern outpost on the Canteen Honor Roll. Telegraph | March 30, 1944 Boys who visited the North Platte Canteen today received a real welcome from a group that is ac- tively interested in them. The Navy Mothers from Holyoke, Colorado, are serving and sponsoring for the community of Holyoke. Twenty-seven ladies and five men arrived early today and soon had the tables decorated in Easter style, with many small “egg” figures with dainty hats and clothes. The Holyoke community sent $150 to pay for supplies and brought 30 loaf cakes, 19 birthday cakes, 100 dozen boiled eggs, two crates oranges [and] two boxes apples. With every passing month of the war, the Canteen more closely resembled a modern nonprofit organization. A monthly Canteen audit
now was being performed by a three-member committee with outstanding community creden- tials: Mayor Sidney P. McFarland; Arthur T. Tramp, second-generation manager of the E.T. Tramp & Sons shoe store; and Ira L. Bare, the dean of North Platte journalists. Telegraph | April 6, 1944 The monthly audit of the books of the North Platte Canteen show that the contributions in cash exceeded the expense by 45 cents for the month of March. Cash received during the month totaled $3,669.99; the amount disbursed was $3,669.54. … leaving on March 31st, 1944, a bank balance of $5,479.77 to the credit of the Canteen. Ira L. Bare S.P. McFarland A.T. Tramp, Committee Canteen leaders had asked residents to donate 300 Easter eggs for visiting service members in 1942. By 1944, they needed many, many dozens more. Visiting the Canteen was a favorite pas- time for North Platte residents — one that, with daily troop traffic still swelling, was becoming a hindrance. Telegraph | April 10, 1944 Servicemen visiting the North Platte Canteen over the weekend had no opportunity to forget that Sunday was Easter. The serving tables were
Mid-March brought a special anniversary for the originator of the Canteen’s birthday-cake tradition.
Telegraph | March 13, 1944 The North Platte Canteen has many loyal support- ers, but none more loyal or consistent than Mr. and Mrs. L.W. [Lucius and Ruth] Kinsman … who Sunday celebrated their second Canteen anniversary. The Kinsmans brought to the Canteen a large two-tier cake with 104 candles on it. Each candle represented a cake that has been presented to the Canteen each Sunday for two years. The cake yesterday was much too large for one soldier, but fortunately a boy on a troop train that arrived late in the afternoon had a birthday, and he
Jessie Hutchens at the Canteen, circa 1944.
74 CANTEEN: AS IT HAPPENED
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