Plains Georgia

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click photo to enlarge		 While we were in Georgia for classes we stopped in Plains to visit the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. This includes The Plains High School, The Plains Historic District, The Plains Train Depot, The Carter Boyhood Home and the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. These sites are all part of the national park service and all free to visit. The picture to the left is the Billy Carter Service station. Our first stop was The Plains High School. The US  election that took place in 1976 was my first ever presidential election and I would have been 21. Jimmy was an unknown candidate in most of the US and his family campaigned for him. It was not unusual for them to go to a state and travel it, knocking on doors and stay in peoples homes. It was a low budget campaign because they did not have a lot of money.

click photo to enlarge		 We did not know what to expect when we got to Plains and I was shocked just how small it was. Before leaving Georgia we also went to the Carter Center in downtown Atlanta.. While I was not real crazy about a lot of things that happened during the Carter presidency such as the order to cut back thermostats in all government buildings to save energy in the winter. LOL this meant I had to buy sweaters for the office at Caterpillar. We had high inflation where it made more sense to owe money then to have cash. You needed to buy it now because next month it would cost more. Home mortgages rose to historic levels and when Carter left office they were at 17%. In 1979 we had the second oil crises the first being the Arab Oil embargo of 1973 and we once again had long lines at the gas pumps and stations running out of gas. But for sure after visiting Plains and the Carter Center I have a new respect for Jimmy Carter. It sure was simpler times then we have today and the things he has accomplished since leaving office are why he is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

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