DENNISON, Ohio (AP) — For more than a million GIs, a
railroad depot canteen in Dennison, southeast of Canton, provided a last
taste of home before heading off to train or fight in World War II.
The
GIs called it "Dreamsville," a term that might have been taken from the
title of a popular song of that era, or perhaps a sentiment reflecting
their state of mind, according to Wendy Zucal, director of the Dennison
Railroad Depot Museum.
For young homesick soldiers, often fresh
off the farm and anxious about going to war, a few minutes at the depot
canteen where they could get food and a warm smile could be like a dream
come true, Zucal said.
On Monday, the restored depot will be the
site of a ceremony celebrating its designation this year by the National
Park Service as a National Historic Landmark.
The Pennsylvania
Railroad Depot and Baggage Room in Dennison was home to the Dennison
Depot Salvation Army’s Servicemen’s Canteen, third largest in the
country during World War II. Today, it is the only surviving railroad
station in the U.S. that still reflects that wartime role.
The
canteens, manned 24/7 by local volunteers who provided and prepared all
the food, were located along major routes of the National Defense
Railroad system. Ohio once had 12 canteens, the most of any state.
Zucal said the canteens solved the problem of feeding troops on the move.
"This
was a great partnership between the military and the home front, where
the home front rallied to answer that need," she noted.
Dennison
was located on the most direct route between St. Louis and New York
City, and was also a regular stop halfway between Pittsburgh and
Columbus where steam-powered locomotives could be re-supplied with water
and coal.
The canteen was started by Lucille Nussdorfer, who
remembered when Dennison folks went to the depot to give food to the
boys going off to World War I.
She and a small group of local
ladies made sandwiches, cookies and coffee to give to military personnel
aboard trains stopping in Dennison. But they were quickly overwhelmed
by the rush of trains, each carrying upwards of 600 to 800 troops.
The
Salvation Army was invited to manage the operation, and soon nearly
4,000 volunteers drawn from an eight-county area were involved in the
effort.
Zucal noted that during a time of wartime rationing,
volunteers had to draw from their own limited supplies of food and
cooking supplies to feed the troops.
"Farmers from all around would donate bushels of apples," she added.
‘Everybody did what they could."
Because
it was important. From talks with former volunteers, Zucal said she
learned that "they felt that if they did this service here, that
somebody (else) would be taking care of their loved ones wherever they
went."
From 1942-1946, the canteen served more than 2 million
sandwiches, 1.3 million cups of beverages, 1.6 million pastries, more
than 1 million pieces of fruit, and distributed a half-million
magazines, books and newspapers.
Zucal said some of the high
school girls tucked their names and addresses in printed materials given
to the troops, and became pen pals with GIs serving overseas.
She
said one woman who will be at Monday’s ceremony later married her
wartime pen pal, "so there’s romance involved here as well."
Jayne
Roe, 88 of Dennison, also will be at the ceremony to help lead the
Pledge of Allegiance. Roe was a canteen volunteer in 1942 and helped
distribute food to the troops.
"It was really wonderful to be able
to help out the servicemen," she recalled. "They couldn’t believe that
people would be doing something like that."
Thank-you letters from
grateful troops who remembered the depot flooded into Dennison during
the war, Zucal said. She noted that the importance of that brief stop
also is illustrated by the man who donated a sandwich bag to the museum
that he’d kept for 50 years after visiting the depot as a soldier.
Zucal
said some soldiers foolishly opted to take advantage of their brief
stop in Dennison by hitting the Top Hat, a nearby bar, and missed their
trains.
After the war, the depot slowly fell into disuse and
disrepair. The village bought the boarded-up structure from Conrail in
1984 for $25,000, and still owns the depot.
Since then, more than
$5 million worth of repair and reconstruction has gone into creating a
time capsule of World War II that draws about 50,000 visitors each year,
Zucal said.
Some of the early restoration work was done by local railroad enthusiasts and
vocational students.
Saving
and restoring the depot has always been a community effort, reflecting
much the same spirit as that of the World War II canteen volunteers,
according to Zucal.
"There was a tremendous pride for both the
railroad heritage and the service they gave to veterans, and that legacy
continues to this day," she said.
The depot’s message, then and
now, is that ‘there was a great partnership between communities and
veterans, and that they needed and supported each other," she added.
"Our
story really is the moment when our home front volunteers meet
face-to-face with the soldiers on the platform. That’s our story — that
moment, and how important that is to our country."
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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.