Jimmy Carter: Another Child of the Great Depression

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday in this space I wrote about my father's life from the time of his birth in October of 1924 until his decision to join the Army and help with the war effort in late 1942.  Much of that narrative centered on life in the rural midwest during the Great Depression of the 1930's and how my father adapted to those rough and impoverished times.

On the day my father was born, October 19th, 1924, there was an eighteen-day-old baby living with his own new parents in the very rural community of Plains, Georgia.  Little Jimmy Carter had been born in an actual hospital on October 1st, but he still came home to a country farmhouse that had neither electricity nor indoor plumbing.  Jimmy's dad grew peanuts for a living, and his mother kept house and encouraged her children to read.  It was proper etiquette in the Carter home to bring a book to the table and to read while eating.

My dad was trapping and selling rabbits when he was six-years-old, and when Jimmy Carter was six he was selling boiled peanuts - from his Dad's farm - out of a wagon along the side of the road.  Both boys appeared to be mindful of the need to make money in order to escape the ravages of poverty and the Depression.  But somewhere not long after the age of six their paths began to diverge.

Young Carter, by having a firmer foundation from which to spring, was soon hauling excess farm produce to town in his wagon and selling it locally.  He shepherded his savings, and by the age of thirteen he was able to buy five houses at bargain prices and turn them into rentals.  Carter, who had a maternal uncle in the Navy who regularly sent the family postcards from exotic ports-of-call, decided early on that he wanted to serve in the Navy.  Even before entering his rural high school in Plains, he had sent for a catalogue from the US Naval Academy so that he could see what he needed to study and accomplish prior to applying there.

The school in Plains covered grades one through eleven, and when Jimmy Carter "graduated" eleventh grade in 1941, he immediately enrolled in the local community college for a year and then transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology for another year so that he could meet the requirements for entry into the Naval Academy.  He was admitted to the Naval Academy in 1943, placed in an "expedited" program due to the war, and graduated in 1946.  Carter went on to in the Navy's submarine program and served as a researcher under famed Admiral Hyman Rickover where he helped in the development of the Navy's nuclear submarine program.

Jimmy Carter left the navy a few years later when his father was diagnosed with cancer.  He went home to save the family farm, which he did, and then got involved in local politics, and the rest, as they say, is history!  My father, a lifelong Republican - though not a crazy Republican like those who define the party today - was not a particular fan of Jimmy Carter's while he was in the White House, but as the years slipped on by, Dad's opinion of Jimmy Carter seemed to continually rise.

I think a lot of people experienced Jimmy Carter - and Rosalynn - in that same way.   They were clearly two of the finest human beings to ever reside in our White House, and their values in life were undoubtedly impacted by the hardships and sacrifices that our nation had to endure during the Great Depression.

Happy birthday, President Carter!  May your day be filled with peace, contentment, family, and love!