Author signs best-selling book in NP

By George Lauby
The North Platte Telegraph

It was Bob Greene Day in North Platte.

Gov. Mike Johanns officially proclaimed June 7, 2002 as Greene’s day, and the Chicago Tribune columnist and author of 30 books spent hours signing hundreds of copies of “Once Upon a Town,” stories about military servicemen and the hospitality they received at the North Platte train station during World War II.

The book appeared on the New York Times bestseller list Friday, 10 days after it hit bookshelves in North Platte.
An estimated 600 people waited in line at the Lincoln County Historical Museum to have books signed, many of them with multiple copies. Greene signed for more than three hours.
WW II Air Force veteran John Zgud of Cozad, 82, arrived at the event in his WW II uniform. He was 24 when he stopped in North Platte in 1944 on his way to flight training in Casper, Wyo.

At the signing, Zgud took photos of Greene while a CBS news camera took photos of Zgud.

“There were a lot of people at the Canteen,” Zgud said. “It was bedlam. Kind of like this.”

“I will write two words with my name: Thank you.” Greene told the crowd when he stopped at 6:30 p.m. to make remarks and receive awards. “That’s the way I feel toward this town.”

Mayor Jim Whitaker presented Greene with the key to the city and an admiralship in the Nebraska Navy. Dan McGuire made him a colonel in the Buffalo Bill Cody Scouts.

Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale declared Greene a voice of the people and a friend of Nebraska, and presented him a replica of The Sower on the top of the state capitol building, which “sows the seeds of agriculture, life, hope and prosperity,” Gale said.

Kathy Barker of Union Pacific’s North Platte Service Unit at Bailey Yard presented Gale with a blanket depicting a portrait of the North Platte Canteen during WW II.

Greene told the crowd he was honored to be in North Platte and to tell the story of the Canteen to a national audience.
“Believe it or not,” Greene cracked, “sometimes we don’t get this kind of response for something we write.

“I call it a miracle, and that is what it was,” he said. “I don’t use the word ‘miracle’ often, because it is a superlative and we very seldom use them. But although the Canteen seems like a dream, it happened.”

During WW II, the population of North Platte was about 12,000. Volunteers from the community entertained and refreshed 6 million of “our nation’s sons, our fathers and grandfathers who passed through. It is a love story,” he said.
Greene said he hopes the book will memorialize the Canteen.
“I hope the monument is in the stories,” he said. “These stories will be there forever.”

Greene began signing at 5:45 p.m., as soon as he arrived at the museum. After stopping to speak to the crowd, he started signing again. At 7:30 p.m., he said he had a slight case of writer’s cramp.

“I started with writer’s cramp, and it just gets worse,” he smiled.

Greene encourages people to look toward Nebraska for ways to make the country better.

“We have ‘focus’ groups, as though we have to look off in the distance to find solutions,” he said.

“I tell people if they want to find solutions, come to North Platte. The people are still here.”

Whitaker called it a wonderful day.

“The nation is looking at us,” he said. “We are a wonderful community, and this verifies it.”

Whitaker said the spirit of the Canteen, and of volunteerism, is alive and well today.

“I have no trouble getting volunteers to serve on committees,” he said. “I appoint 14 of them. We have a waiting list.”

During the signing, Lloyd Synovec of North Platte, 74, played songs of the 1940s on the piano, including “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “Stardust.” Synovec also played the songs in 1945, as a 17-year-old Navy serviceman, during a 10-minute layover at the Canteen.

Synovec’s picture is on the wall at the museum and was featured in the 1986 book, “The North Platte Canteen,” written by James J. Reisdorff.