A Grateful Nation recreates what life was like in small Midwestern towns during the World War II years using stories from interviews, old letters, family lore, and wartime editions of The Columbus Gazette.  Projections of local wartime photos will be shown throughout the play, giving faces and context to the stories with period music completing the mood.

The events and anecdotes in the play are centered on stories and people from Columbus Junction, Iowa- a town about 35 miles southeast of Iowa City where authors Rick Williams and Ron Clark grew up.  "Though the majority of the stories we tell are about people in our town," says Clark, "anyone from any town could do the research and uncover similar tales." Adds Williams, "It would be a stretch to say these stories are universal, but they are certainly national.  Every American living in the early 1940s was affected by the events of the war--and so were those of us who came after them."