The North Platte Canteen, WWII
Col. Jaskolski, a veteran of the Iraq war, is commander of the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade of the Arkansas Army National Guard. For three weeks earlier this summer, the 142nd had been conducting an emergency deployment readiness exercise in Wyoming, training and sleeping outdoors, subsisting on field rations. Now it was time for the 700 soldiers to return to their base.
A charter bus company had been hired for the 18-hour drive back to Arkansas. The Army had budgeted for a stop to get snacks. The bus company determined that the soldiers would reach North Platte, in western Nebraska, around the time they would likely be hungry. The company placed a call to the visitors’ bureau: Was there anywhere in town that could handle a succession of 21 buses, and get 700 soldiers in and out for a quick snack?
The North Platte Canteen, 2018
The townspeople made those 10 minutes count. Starting in December 1941, they met every train: up to 23 a day, beginning at 5 a.m. and ending after midnight. Those volunteers greeted between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers a day. They presented them with sandwiches and gifts, played music for them, danced with them, baked birthday cakes for them. Every day of the year, every day of the war, they were there at the depot. They never missed a train, never missed a soldier. They fed six million soldiers by the end of the war. Not 1 cent of government money was asked for or spent, save for a $5 bill sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
and this,
Although railroad security was tight and the schedules of the soldier trains were kept secret, the head canteen organizers were given alerts of incoming trains so the volunteers would have enough time to get there and prepare for the troops. The woman in charge would put out a coded call – “I have the coffee on” – to let the others know that it was time to jump into action. Not that there was ever much time between trains; as many as 24 passed through North Platte every day. Some days the volunteers served thousands of soldiers. They performed acts of kindness like giving out cakes on soldiers’ birthdays and singing “Happy Birthday” to them. For soldiers in medical cars who were unable to leave the train, girls went in with baskets of treats and distributed them up and down the aisles. For those soldiers who were able to get off of the train but couldn’t make it inside, women stood on the platform to distribute items. Every one of the soldiers was treated like family, and volunteers saw to it that not a single train was missed. No soldier was ever charged a single cent for the items they received in North Platte.
Those things have great power.
Re: breastfeeding When I gave birth to LD, I was working a contract at a rather large corporate firm downtown, and was given a corner office from which to work. I was told the owner of the office was elsewhere working on a project for some months. I was pumping at the time, and my boss and coworkers knew that… Read more »
Note to self:
When reconciling a credit card statement, check first that you’re looking at the right statement and don’t cross the entries over.
And I gotta keep going…
Night all.
4:15 in the frigging am comes awful darned early! Good night.
It’s been 5 years since I last saw a movie in a theater. Now I want to see this Equalizer pt 2. I could go to a matinee showing and probably be ok, but I’d really rather watch it at home. How long is it taking these days for a popular new movie to be available on DVD or by… Read more »
I’ve seen a couple of good nicknames for the Dems’ latest commie darling:
She Guevara
Alexandria Occasional-Cortex
skip
#58 Texpat, that is very good news, I’m sad to say that I’d not thought of the little fellow in a while, but it looks like he’s doing just fine. Oh, and if you get the chance, post a picture of your grandson, we’d like to see his progress.
72, Yes it was Truman but after the debacle in Korea that lead to the Pusan Perimeter. There was a song, the bug-out boogie about that.
56 gto
Rhonda Smith is pretty impressive. That thumb technique she has going on is cool, especially for someone with small hands like her.
Dairy Barn.
70 gto
The first fully integrated institution in America was the US military, especially the Army. It started in WWII and was fully ordered by President Truman.
55 GJT
Usually the reason Jean-Claude Juncker is on his knees is because he’s falling down drunk.
Re the oc pic. It is WWII and there are a lot of black dudes in uniform in it. With everybody else. Just an observation.
Milking Parlor
66 Adee
It was a hard road, but we finally managed to get Her Highness, the grandma, through all this trauma.
Everybody else has been coasting along.
We call ours The Milking Room.
#58 Texpat
Good news from the nursery and associated bottling works.
What Bonecrusher #64 said. 🙂
61 Shannon
Twirling was only one of her physical talents.
#58 TP: The finest news I have heard in quite a while, a premie eating like a horse and gaining weight. He will surpass all your expectations; there is a reason why HE HAS CHOSEN to bless this one.
#58, Concrats things are going well there.
As a free trade advocate for most of my life, I find it a little strange to be defending Trump’s strategy. All the libertarians are getting hysterical and the free trade Right are wringing their hands I think unnecessarily. I’ve never believed Trump is Herbert Hoover reincarnated fixated on resurrecting the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. Trump has everybody with their… Read more »
Texpat
Fifty years ago the Bellville Times reported that Paulette Plagens excelled at twirling school.
🙂
59 gto
Heh.
Nope, pretty sure that is not it.
The “Sucking Room” ?
I’m in the middle of, with our daughter, a torrent of breast pumping, bottling and feeding a premature grandson who eats like a horse. He’s already up to 6.5 pounds and he’s not even reached his due date yet. The boy is hungry every 2 hours.
The building we are wiring has a lot of glass walls. Except for the breast feeding room. I do not recall the pc term for the room, but that is what it is.
From what I can find, the bass player on tour with Beck is Rhonda Smith. I had not heard of her before, but one more on the list of bass players I follow. Most of them female. Tal Wilkenfeld is another bassist he tours with. Pretty nice looking Aussie.
Anytime anyone named Jean-Claude is on his knees before a U.S. President is a good time!
Trade Wars Cont’d. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to suspend new tariffs while negotiating over trade, pulling the U.S. and Europe back from the edge of a transatlantic trade war. The leaders pledged to expand European imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas and soybeans and both vowed to lower industrial tariffs, excluding autos. The U.S.… Read more »
Farmers are angry with Trump “The $20 billion trade surplus in agriculture is due to decades of effort by American farmers who’ve opened new markets and developed world class supply chains,” said the group’s executive director, Brian Kuehl. “Unfortunately, a one-time check won’t replace the deterioration of long-term contracts and relationships. Nor will it address the many sectors of agriculture… Read more »
And these are the people that want to run and rule your life.
That psycho is symbolic of the
The Deep State
The Newspeak Slimers
The Fascistic DNC
and Mr Potato Head, Joe ScarBurro.
Hell froze over yesterday and it is even colder there now. The political editor of the leading German newspaper, Die Welt, had this column published in the Op-Ed section of the New York Times last Thursday. But that’s a mistake. Mr. Trump’s anger at America’s allies embodies, however unpleasantly, a not unreasonable point of view, and one that the rest… Read more »
Bottom half anyhow.
Gigi got in trouble her “assistant” the other day for working in a long T-shirt and underwear. Gigi, where are your pants?! 😀
#48 Hamous
Put that note on the fridge where you can’t miss it. And another one on the desk.
I’m just gonna work from home, particularly on days when I’m suffering death by a dozen conference calls. I can do my work nekkid!
/note to self – remember to tape over the laptop camera before next conference call
Aha, on the open-concept huge room that has cubicles, suggest engaging in a google search of that arrangement vs. regular offices vs. really open without cubicles office design and the shortcomings of and/or or deficits of each. I saw an article in the Chron recently, perhaps last Sunday’s paper business section or earlier this week on that very subject. Open-concept… Read more »
Our shop is open concept. Only issues we ever had was competing music, from tejano to country legends to classic rock to rap. You get a smorgasbord as you walk through.
#40 I saw one of those acre-of-cubicles rooms at Chrysler when I made a trip to Flint MI, but the ones I ever personally worked in were typically 8-12 cubicles. They were usually set up in what had been a suite of small offices with the walls knocked out. For a while (early in the learning curve), foot traffic just… Read more »
#40
I think it’s time for me to take a break from the blog. I showed the exact same video to our task group on Monday 😉
And changing tables in the Men’s rooms. I hear they are all the rage. At a company dinner couple of years ago I had a colleague of the female persuasion ask me to go into the men’s restroom at the restaurant and see if they had a changing table. I asked why and she explained she was going to complain… Read more »
Hey, here’s a thing Sessions is getting 100% CORRECT: lllegal, not undocumented.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/24/justice-department-prefers-illegal-alien-not-undoc/
Changing Tables
Select Style
*Men
*Women
*T’other
Yes.
Cubicles were great.)
#35
Speaking from experience, a cubicle is better than a big fully open space to work in.
And changing tables in the Men’s rooms. I hear they are all the rage.
After you get the changing tables, demand that the Men’s rooms be redesignated because of the gender normative nature of calling them men’s rooms
I suggest you demand a crying room and a Safe Space, and perhaps a Service Dog potty room. I’m sure you will get plenty of support.
And no privacy.
Been there in the Big Oil world.–Shudder.
Just better hope you don’t get stuck next to someone who likes to eat Crunchy Cheetos all day in the “open concept.”
During a planning session monday someone brought up that he had located a used office furniture company that had very good deals on open office cubicles. I felt compelled to ask the team why do you think this company has a surplus of open office cubicles?