JIMMY CARTER & FRIENDS

After I got this letter, I started visiting the Carters in Plains. I remember one visit in particular. It was in early1968. I don't know why I remember this visit so well, but I do. Very early that Saturday morning, Jimmy Carter and I were sitting alone in his very modest office at the back of the Carter's Warehouse store on the main street in Plains. He was wearing khaki pants, a red flannel shirt, and boots. It was very cold in his office, and he had a wood burning stove in the corner of that little room. He was sitting behind an old wooden desk. I was sitting across from him. On the wall behind him, he had put up a large map of Georgia that showed all 159 counties in the state. He had colored each county a certain color based on what percentage of the vote he had received in that county in the 1966 primary election. He explained to me that the map helped him decide in which counties he needed to campaign the most. Jimmy Carter told me he was already driving all around the state to make speeches two or three nights a week. That had to be exhausting and it had to consume much of Carter's energy and time. In land area, Georgia is the biggest state east of the Mississippi River. But, that did not keep Jimmy Carter from crisscrossing it day after day and night after night. He was on a mission. I don't remember any small talk or joking that day. It was all business. Jimmy Carter was talking about his political strategy. I don't even remember saying anything, even though I must have.