The Coffee Pot Ladies

From Biography in Black , 1962

"To most people in and around Streator, any discussion of the Second World War sooner or later leads to the subject of the Streator Canteen. This undertaking grew out of the Parents Service Club, which was organized early in the war to pack cigarettes and supply other needs for men and women in the service. Club members noticed that men from the many troop trains passing through town on the Santa Fe jumped off whenever the train stopped briefly, to buy snacks and coffee wherever they could be found. Several persons felt that Streator itself should do something to help out.

In the fall of 1943, three women —Mrs. George Plimmer, Mrs. Irl Shull, and Mrs. Ray Eutsey—were delegated as a committee to investigate the situation and make plans. Many said it was impossible: there were hundreds of servicemen through town every day, the cost of feeding them would be tremendous, the depot had no facilities. 'Well,' answered those who favored the project, 'it could be done if we worked hard enough.' And work they did. Early in November, a canteen committee was formed by representatives from each organization in town, money was pledged, and the ladies set up a small serving area in the train station. (Mrs. Plimmer has been teased ever since for her remark that 'If we just had a nice table here in the corner, that's all we'd need.')

Early on Sunday morning, November 28, a small group of women, who had made sandwiches and ten gallons of coffee, met at the station at 5 a.m. Shortly after 6—when the first train had come and gone—they found there was nothing left. Hastily they took up a collection, bought more food, later ground up what was left of their Sunday roasts for sandwich filling, and somehow got through the day. The first weeks were like that—improvised, frantic, and exhausting. The three women who had organized it rarely left the canteen for the first month. Gradually systems were devised to make things simpler. The high school contributed a coffee urn; more supervisors volunteered; a depot storeroom was furnished for making coffee and sandwiches.

Groups not only from Streator but from all over the area, as far away as Spring Valley on the north and Flanagan on the south, took 'days,' contributing food, money, and workers. (In the entire history of the Canteen, only one of these groups failed to show up.) One farmer donated a hog. A tag day in June 1944 raised $1300 to pay for a kitchen at the back of the depot. At first volunteers walked through the trains with food, but the practice was discontinued when one of the women barely got off a train before it pulled out of the station. Later local carpenters devised cigarette-girl carriers, and groups of women stationed themselves with these at intervals along the train platform. Besides beverages and sandwiches, they had special seasonal treats—Easter eggs, Thanksgiving turkey, fresh fruit in summer.

The Canteen fed thousands of G.I. 's—soldiers, sailors, and marines from all corners of the United States. They laughed, cracked jokes, made passes at the pretty girls; at least one romance—between a soldier and a hostess from Pontiac who wrote her name on the paper sandwich bag she gave him—ended in marriage. One train was full of boys who piled out of the cars in wonderment at their first sight of snow. As early as December 1943, the women were serving 6700 a week. By April 1944 the daily record hit 3650, and throughout that year the monthly average stood between 40,000 and 50,000, One day Claudette Colbert and Shirley Temple stepped down for a breath of fresh air; another day it was Amos and Andy.

Wrote a sailor: 'It was the only stop on our whole trip from San Francisco to Great Lakes where our boys received this sort of welcome.' And an army sergeant sent a note: 'Streator will always hold a warm spot in the hearts of service men who are fortunate enough to stop over with you for just a few minutes.' Hundreds of trains and thousands of cups of coffee after the chaotic first day, the Canteen closed on May 28, 1946. It had meant a great deal to the town. As one faithful worker put it: 'People came from miles away to help, and Streator became known all over the world.' "