A world of plastic: A Chicago pastor’s Earth Day message
By Joseph Chamblain
EarthBeat
April 18, 2024
About 20 years ago, Bob Greene, then a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, wrote a little book called Once Upon a Town. It was about a canteen that the citizens of North Platte, Nebraska, operated during World War II. Most soldiers heading for the Pacific on troop trains passed through North Platte on the Union Pacific Railroad. Because North Platte was a crew change point on the Union Pacific, the train stopped there for 10 minutes.
Beginning on Christmas Day 1941 and continuing until the end of the war in 1945, a group of volunteers met every troop train passing through North Platte and passed out egg salad sandwiches, a piece of cake and fresh hot coffee. The coffee was served in glass mugs.