Well, not exactly — you know — you can’t always get what you want. We did; however, get to take a trip to Plains yesterday to see Jimmy Carter give his Sunday School lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church. The following things may or may not have happened on the way down…
- I may have awoken at 4:30 AM after sleeping for one hour (presumably the result of a combination of excitement for the day to come and nervousness about sleeping through the alarm). In case you were wondering, 30 year old people need more sleep than that.
- My dad may or may not have overslept and awoken at 5:28 and looked at the alarm clock in a moment of sheer luck.
- We may or may not have nearly missed rolling over in a ditch after we swerved to miss a dog who was standing in the middle of the highway and in no hurry to move.
- We may or may not have missed our turn and may or may not have driven 20 minutes in the wrong direction.
- We may or may not have been pulled over by a Georgia State Trooper after we finally turned onto a road that would actually take us to Plains for apparently: speeding past him going one direction, speeding past him coming back the other direction, and making some sort of (as yet inexplicable) U-turn in an intersection in order to turn onto the correct street.
- There may or may not be a covert government effort to keep President Carter safe which involves making Google give false directions to a dummy church on a different road. Another extension to this theory is that only people who truly want to hear him speak are willing to drive in circles for extended periods of time so it filters out the riff-raff and keeps the crowds down.
When we arrived (which may or may not have been about 45 minutes after we intended to arrive) we were very happy to discover that it wasn’t too crowded and we were able to sit right down in the main sanctuary (after being wanded and having our bags checked by security…you know, Secret Service kind of security…). We were grateful because we’d all heard stories of people getting there as the doors opened (which happens at 8:30) and the place being completely packed, and the overflow room where you watch it on a closed-circuit television. The whole experience was surreal. We were sitting in a room with Jimmy Carter teaching us Sunday School. For the most part it felt natural and easy and like it was nothing out of the ordinary, but my mind kept screaming: “THAT’S JIMMY CARTER!!!”
I would have gotten better pictures but we were told (in NO uncertain terms) that we had a very limited window during which to take pictures and that we were NOT to stand up while doing so. I follow directions (and I wanted to keep my camera) so those were the best I could get inside the church. We then attended the regular church service during which I learned that: A) I really like old Baptist Hymns (even without the inclusive language that I so appreciate) and B) Walker Knight should have just gone ahead and given the sermon himself.
After the service we had a brief opportunity to have our picture taken with President Carter outside of the church. We were somewhat singled out by the lady in charge (Miss Jan) after Walker gave a prayer during Sunday School and told “Mr. Jimmy” about his connections to Baptists Today (and by connections, I mean he founded it as SBC Today in 1983). Thanks to Walker we were the last people to get a picture which meant that he spoke to our group for a few minutes and Miss Jan was kind enough to take pictures while he was doing so. This was special for several reasons: A) Miss Jan gave very clear instructions before Sunday School about the pictures that we were only allowed ONE picture, B) Miss Jan also gave very clear instructions that no one was allowed to shake Pres. Carter’s hand, and C) Miss Jan again made it very clear that there was to be no chit-chat.
Pok’s illegal handshake:
Next we wandered around (the one-block area of) downtown Plains:
Next we headed off to Mom’s Kitchen (the only restaurant in Plains). Everyone had big plates of southern-style everything (many thanks to Rebecca Waugh who treated us). It was delicious.
According to this article “Mom” of Mom’s kitchen is Maggie Crimes. Pres. Carter used to eat at her other restaurant (about 10 miles from Plains) after church and she opened up in Plains about nine years ago at Carter’s urging because he said that so many of people in town were getting too old to cook for themselves. Obviously this was a good idea. Also (apparently) there is a Mom’s Kitchen Auto Detailing shop right next door. I wish I had a picture of that sign…
While we were eating we ran into Miss Jan who offered us a tour of the inn across the street that Jimmy and Rosalynn helped build (by help, I mean that Jimmy Carter helped construct the inside of the space, apparently with help from local inmates) and decorate (this was Rosalynn’s wheelhouse, apparently). Here is a trash can that he built for the place:
While we were there Miss Jan told us a story about the inauguration: She was Amy Carter’s governess before Jimmy won the presidency and they moved to D.C. and she also went with the family to help get Amy settled in until they could find someone to help them in Washington. Because of this she attended the inauguration. Just before the ceremony was to begin she took Amy to the bathroom to make sure that all business was handled before things got started. While she was putting on all the layers that Amy had to wear that day she discovered something in Amy’s pocket. Apparently, Amy had tried to sneak a book into her pocket. When Miss Jan asked her why she had it she said something to the effect of ‘you know Daddy’s speaches are long and I just thought I might get bored, I promise I won’t take it out if you let me keep it.’ Miss Jan made her give it up and she says that she had a mental image of Jimmy Carter giving his inaugural address and the headlines being about the fact that Amy was reading a book while he was speaking. Living history is very cool.
Our trip back was far less eventful and last night I slept for 11 hours straight. Awesome.