Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 6/10/2012 + 2558 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Once upon a time in America, people were nice to each other, even people they didn't know.

Some of the reviewers didn't like this book. I guess they were never in the service and away from home for long periods of time. Maybe some of these reviewers are the kind of people you sit down next to at a bus stop, or in a waiting room somewhere and, when you try to strike up a conversation, they ignore you as they don't know you and they never will. I guess they are just too busy with themselves.

I was away in the service for four years, overseas or 3,000 miles away from home on a different coast. I treasured the experience when I was invited to a home for Thanksgiving, Easter, or even just any weekend.

This book wasn't so much about the town as it was about the thousands of servicemen who remembered the kindness of the people in the town. And still remember them 50 years later.

My mother is Australian, and her mother ran a boarding house in Sydney before and during WW II. On the boards at the service centers was a sign telling American servicemen that one day a week the house was open to them with home cooked food and a real home to rest in for a few hours. Not only did the men write letters thanking my grandmother, but their mothers in the United States also wrote her.

I can't give this book to my mother to read, as she remembers too many American submariners who visited every time their subs came off patrol, and too many times when they didn't come back and the sub was reported lost.

If we were all like the people of North Platte, the world would be a much happier place.

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