Cate is in 4th grade this year and one of the annual 4th grade field trips is a trip to Plains, GA. Cate's teacher, who we love to the moon and back, is new this year and mentioned to me one afternoon a few weeks ago - Wouldn't it be cool if we could meet Jimmy Carter on our field trip? (For those who may not know, Jimmy Carter is from Plains, GA and after his presidency ended up moving back there). So, I decided to see if we could find anyone who had any connection to President Carter. I emailed several possibilities (dead ends) and eventually took it to social media. I posted on my Facebook account - does anyone have any connection to President Carter?? And lo and behold - one of the former teachers from our school PMd me to let me know one of the new teachers was from Plains AND Jimmy Carter was good friends with her parents. So, I emailed this teacher who was beyond gracious and she agreed to contact her mom to see if we could work something out. Her mother is the pianist at the church Jimmy Carter still attends. Well, President Carter was more than willing to meet our kids but he had meetings that day and it looked like it wasn't going to happen. Well, it was ok because a field trip is a field trip and, to a 4th grader, thats up there with Christmas and their birthday. So, yesterday we all meet up at the school and board our bus to go to Plains which is about an hour from Columbus. Since they go to a small private school, this is the only time they get to ride a school bus which further enhances the field trip fever.
So, the wheels on the bus went round and round until we got to Plains and Jimmy Carter's boyhood home. The kids got to wash laundry with washboards and real lye soap.
They got to shuck and grind corn.
They got to manually plow a field.
Then, they went to the home that the Carter's farm overseers lived in. While we were there, I noticed there was a large caravan speeding down the road. Then, the several vans and SUVs pulled over next to where we were and who walks out of one of the vans but
the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter!
President Carter stayed there and talked to the kids for about 20 minutes. He answered questions from them, posed for pictures, shook hands with all of the parents. He was so kind and patient to the kids, like a sweet grandpa. He answered each question like it was one of the most important questions anyone had ever asked him.
We later found out that he had been meeting with a Chinese delegation and took time between meetings to specially come and visit our kids. It was the first time any of them had ever seen a real president, not to mention having one who gave them his full attention. They asked questions like What was your favorite sport growing up (baseball) to what is it like having people want to kill you (scary but part of the job.) He shook my hand and I thanked him. Agree or disagree with his politics, Jimmy Carter is a good, Christian man. He even took the time to share his testimony of Jesus with the kids. It was definitely a field trip they (or I_ will ever forget!
After President Carter left, the kids got to rake the front yard with an old handmade broom.
Then, they toured his actual boyhood home. Jimmy Carter grew up in the original DIY times. We have to FIND things to make, but they made things out of necessity. There was no Pinterest, there was no money. They used newspaper for insulation, made brooms and rakes from sticks and tall grasses. Everything on Jimmy Carter's farm had a use. I think that is something we could use a lesson on today. One thing I took away from this field trip is how utterly blessed we are. We have indoor plumbing, running water, comfortable climate controlled homes. Jimmy Carter grew up without those things. And even growing up a farmer's son in rural Georgia, he still became president. My hope from this trip and from the way we are raising her, is that my daughter will know that she can be anything she wants to be - including president of the United States.
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