Community's welcome made a big impression

(Ted Farmin sent me a video clip about the North Platte Nebraska Canteen. It brought back memories of World War II years when communities across our country did all they could to give a GI (government issue) a touch of home. In North Platte, a troop train would stop for about 10 minutes; the troops would dash to the canteen for sandwiches, a quick dance, and maybe a hug. Erik Daarstad and I met Beth May during the filming of Sandpoint’s centennial movie. I want to share with you her story, in her own words, what Sandpoint meant to a young couple far from home.)

“I was born and raised in Nebraska as was Price, my husband. Price was inducted into the Navy and shipped to Farragut Naval Training Station for boot camp. We were to be married when he came home on his boot leave but the Navy called him back early. My mother had made my wedding dress; I had all the people invited, and I just wasn’t about to go down and have the preacher marry us without wearing my pretty dress. So we decided that Price would return to Farragut and I would join him when he got permanently stationed. They stationed him at Farragut and I quit my job in Nebraska and headed for Sandpoint, Idaho.

“When I left Lincoln, the train was loaded in this order: service men first, inductees second, war workers third, and civilians last; I was able to get a seat on the train.

“My mother had made me a chicken dinner to take on the train because it did not have a dining car. I’d met up with a young sailor and his friend, both from Iowa. They were on their way back to Farragut after their boot leave. When they discovered that I had eats, I became their friend. We had to change trains in Billings, Mont.

“When we boarded the  train, they got all the service men on, all the inductees on, but not all the war workers and I was in trouble being a civilian. The two sailors from Iowa told the conductor that I was their sister and that I was going to Sandpoint to be with them until they shipped out. The conductor asked, ‘Is there a spot? She’s not taking a seat from a sailor, is she?’ The sailors told him no, which was not exactly true. There was a sailor who had a little too much to drink and they shoved him under a seat and they let me get on the train.

“I got to Sandpoint about seven in the evening and I went to the hotel. There were two hotels at that time in Sandpoint, the Pend Oreille and the Rowland and both were full of sailors. Well, I decided that I would sit in the lobby of the hotel and sleep that night and then get in touch with Price out at Farragut the next day.

“I was sitting there and the clerk at the desk asked me if I would be interested in staying in a private home; I said, ‘Of course.’  So they took me out to Bill and Bertha Shook’s home at 414 Pine St. When they found out that I had come to Sandpoint to be married, the wheels started turning and by morning we had chosen a church, the Presbyterian Church.

“I tried to get in touch with Price but he was in school. So I sat on the porch all day waiting for him to call because they said they would get him my message. I finally got so hungry that I went down town to get something to eat. I was sitting in the café eating and the shore patrol came in and asked if I was Beth Knight?  I said ‘yes’ and wondered what I had done wrong. They took me to the Red Cross office and Pearl O’Donnell told me that Price had been trying to reach me but something had gone haywire and he didn’t know where I was. She contacted Price and we made arrangements to be married on the following Saturday. (To be continued)