In an exclusive adaptation from the new book, "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen," published in this Sunday’s PARADE magazine, author Bob Greene writes, "On Christmas Day, 1941, it began. A train rolled in–and the surprised soldiers on board were greeted by North Platte residents with welcoming words, heartfelt smiles and baskets of food. What happened in the years that followed was nothing short of amazing–some would say a miracle. The depot was turned into the North Platte Canteen. Every day from 5 a.m. until the last troop train had passed through after midnight, the Canteen was open. Each day of the war, 3000 to 5000 military personnel came through. The trains were scheduled to stop for only 10 minutes, but the people of North Platte made those 10 minutes count."

Says Rosalie Lippincott, 74, a Canteen volunteer: "We would hear the call of ‘troop train coming in,’ and we would hurry to make sure that all the fried chicken, fresh fruit, sandwiches, coffee and cookies were out on tables. Then the soldiers would come running in. Oh! The different accents, the colors of skin…the men in khaki, the boys in Navy blue, the Marines. And all of this for just ten minutes at a time!"

More than 125 farm communities around North Platte made sure the Canteen was staffed. "Those people made you feel really appreciated," says Don Griffith, 79. "Those happy smiles you saw. I know it sounds like a simple thing. But I was heading for an infantry division, and I didn’t know where I would end up. And I never forgot those smiles. You have no idea what it meant to us. We came through in the middle of the night. And they were there."

Today, the depot that housed the Canteen has been torn down, and only freight trains pass through North Platte. "There’s not much there anymore," says Ann Perlinger, 70, who was one of the Canteen’s youngest volunteers. "All those boys…they were here and then they were gone." Greene adds, "But they haven’t been forgotten. Even now, they haven’t been forgotten."

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