The Magazine Table
Wearing "V" for victory in January 1942, canteen workers stock the magazine table located along the canteen's south wall. From left: Rose Loncar, Rae Wilson, Maize Eshom, Edwina Barraclough and Lydia Jensen.
In addition to filling stomachs, canteen volunteers attempted to relieve the boredom of service personnel during their long train rides to wherever. A never ending chore was to keep the canteen's magazine table filled with current reading literature, Bibles and religious matter of all faiths, song sheets, maps and playing cards. (LIFE magazine lead in popularity, followed by sports publications, Reader's Digest, comic books and science literature.) By 1945, about 1,000 requests for reading matter were received daily. One record for magazine contributions may have been when Cozad, Neb. residents brought in two tons of them.The canteen also provided writing material and stationary for correspondence. As military hospital trains began to roll through North Platte with war wounded, volunteers also rounded up razors, razor blades, canes, toothbrushes and jigsaw puzzles for care baskets sent along on the trains.
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