"Jimmy Carter - Man from Plains"

To read more about the film's scheduled showings and the Court Square Theater in general, please click on the link below:

http://courtsquaretheater.com/...

Over the past few years, I have attended many concerts and other such productions at the Court Square Theater and strongly recommend it, especially since they will now be showing this documentary about one of my favorite presidents as I explain below...
In the summer and fall of 1976, at age 26, my first venture into politics was to work as a volunteer - folding leaflets, stuffing, addressing and sealing envelopes, licking and sticking stamps, sending out materials and making telephone calls - in the downtown Roanoke Democratic Party headquarters of Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign.

Earlier, in March of that year, while on my way back home from a five-month, 25-state, 27,000-mile trip around the country with a friend who had just returned to Roanoke the previous summer from fighting in the Vietnam War, we stopped off at the Carter campaign's original - and then quite austere - Peachtree Street offices in downtown Atlanta.  There I purchased - for $1.00 each - a couple of "Jimmy Carter for President" campaign posters, some bumper stickers and several "Carter Peanut" key chains.  Yes, I still have them to this day...

At that time, Carter's presidential campaign was struggling to stay alive, but soon thereafter he began to win various state Democratic primaries - particularly the one in Florida - and the rest is history.  By the time I started working with his campaign efforts in Roanoke, it was no longer necessary to purchase those types of materials, and it was most rewarding to be a small part of a winning presidential campaign in November, 1976.

Some time in the late summer or early fall of 1976, Jimmy Carter made a campaign stop in Roanoke and I went to the airport to greet him, expecting to see throngs of people gathered around the old terminal, yet there was no one there but me!  After checking inside to make sure that Carter truly was on his way to Roanoke, I went back outside and sat in my car, hoping to catch a glimpse of him when he arrived.  

Sure enough, about an hour later, Carter's flight touched down, taxied over toward the area where I was parked, and Jimmy Carter and several campaign aides disembarked from the plane and began to walk across the tarmac toward the terminal and very near to the old, 6-foot chain-link fence that used to separate the parking lot from the landing areas.

Without concern or hesitation, I jumped out of my car, climbed the fence high enough to reach over it, and yelled "Welcome to Roanoke, Jimmy!" to future President Carter.  (Can you imagine anyone even attempting to do something like that today?)

When he heard me and then saw me hanging on the fence, Jimmy Carter smiled that famous smile of his, interrupted his hurried pace, turned and walked over to the fence, reached up and shook my hand and said in that strong Georgia accent, "Thank you - glad ta be heah!"  At the time, I remember thinking about how he came across as so appreciative and sincere, and that he also was smaller in stature than I had envisioned.  

Later, and still today, Jimmy Carter has proven himself time and again to be a giant of a man - a Nobel Peace Prize recipient among many, many other honors and recognitions - who continues to impress us with his strong character and indomitable spirit.

Over the years, I have visited Carter's Habitat for Humanity offices in Plains, Georgia and have toured the Carter boyhood home and grounds in nearby Archery, and I have continued to be most impressed by this former president.

This coming holiday weekend, if you get a chance, please go see "Jimmy Carter - Man from Plains" at the Court Square Theater in Harrisonburg or at any other venue where it may be showing.

I have no doubt that Jimmy Carter is - and will continue to be - most impressive, both in this documentary film, and in real life...

Thanks!

Steve

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