Collection tells Carter’s story

Apart from the toothy grin and the accent, I only have another hazy memory of Jimmy Carter as president: how he put on a cardigan to encourage Americans to sweaterize rather than boost the thermostat.

After Carter died Sunday, I heard from Ricardo Fernandez, whom I had met repainting highway markers with Bob Bigler of the American Legion. Jimmy Carter — and Fernandez’s collection of Carter memorabilia — never came up, but Fernandez now emailed to ask, Would I like to see it and hear stories? 

You bet I would. 

Fernandez met Carter at a 2001 book signing in Chicago. He remembers the cursory glance from the bright blue eyes as Carter signed his book, then felt compelled to write him a few months later.  

That letter prompted a friendship that traversed borders, many projects and skiing and hunting trips. 

Still processing the loss, Fernandez said of Carter, “He inspires me. He was down to Earth. He looked for the underdogs.” 

I browsed a few of Fernandez's 14 meticulously assembled binders. Along with a half-dozen plastic bins marked “JC,” the collection includes hard hats, a peanut puppet, pins, posters, books, pictures and even a jar of red Georgia dirt from the Carters’ front yard (“What are you doing?” the Secret Service agents had asked Fernandez). 

Fernandez showed the robe from Jerusalem’s King David Hotel that Carter wore on the morning of the day that he orchestrated the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in March 1979. Fernandez said, “To this day it’s still honored." 

Fernandez talked about parking cars at 3 a.m. at the church in Plains, Georgia that drew as many as 900 people when the Carters were in attendance. I paged through a Sunday school script that Carter had annotated (he taught more than a thousand sessions).

The Carters picked up skiing in their 60s and continued into their 90s, giving up at their doctors’ request. Intrepidity ran in the family: When Carter was governor, his 68-year-old mom joined the Peace Corps.  

Her son later worked to reduce guinea worm cases in Africa from 3.5 million to eight.  

Fernandez said with a big smile, “Carter always said that of his 100 years, he was president for just 4 of them.” Over their 24-year friendship, Fernandez made about 80 visits to Plains and traveled with Carter elsewhere, such as at Habitat for Humanity builds from Haiti to Tennessee, and from Texas to Edmonton, Alberta. 

In his volunteer work, Fernandez often shares his expertise in physical therapy. “I’ve been to 36 countries,” he said, “the poorest ones are where I go first." 

We marveled that a frugal peanut farmer could rise to the presidency. 

“That’s why he was viable,” Fernandez said. “He was an outsider.” Carter had no money for hotels on the campaign trail, so he stayed with friends.  

Once in office, “he didn’t serve alcohol in the White House,” Fernandez said, “which was a problem.” Also a problem at the White House, according to Fernandez: It was kept so cold the typists complained they couldn’t feel their fingers. 

Maybe Carter went a bit overboard on energy efficiency. He also didn’t hold back in service to others. 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at mdavis@dailyinterlake.com.