Entertainment Inside the Canteen
Beneath sourpussed caricatures of Adolph Hitler and associates, a sailor demonstrates his canteen keyboard talents to comrades in arms. Sampling coffee or milk as they listen are U.S. Army and Navy servicemen and Navy nurses.Lisa Geiken of the North Platte / Lincoln County Convention & Visitors Bureau recognized the above picture after having visited the Lincoln County Historical Museum while taking pictures for a new brochure they are producing. She was talking to the volunteers at the front desk and found out the gentleman volunteering that day was the gentleman sailor playing the piano in the picture hanging above the piano in the Canteen display. His name is Lloyd Synovec and he lives here in North Platte. Lisa said "He took the time that day to play me a few tunes on that piano and I'm sure that is a moment I will never forget."
For their few minutes of relaxation, the canteen offered service personnel with entertainment from a donated piano, jukebox and radio. The former had its ivories pounded by both service personnel and canteen volunteers in informal jam sessions. At Christmas and Easter, local church groups held join-in song choruses around the piano. Those who visited the canteen on their birth dates got an appropriate chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
|
|