Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Recently I mentioned trip to Plains, GA, home of Jimmy Carter. I also mentioned the business that claimed to have the world’s largest collection of political campaign buttons for sale.

I didn’t buy any buttons but I did pick up three copies of local news publications from 1977 and 1978. (They were far cheaper than the buttons)

It appears that Plains did not have a weekly newspaper when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. But I was able to purchase a copy of The Plains Monitor second edition that came out February 24, 1977, a month after Carter was inaugurated.

It was a 16-page tab (the Canary is printed on tab sized pages). There were stories about people who had come to Plains to see the place as well as of people who had gone to Washington D. C. to see where Jimmy Carter was living now.

Billy Carter, the president’s brother, had a half page ad for his gas station in the issue congratulating the newspaper. The paper itself had a house ad on the back page indicating it had already reached a circulation of 10,000 which is interesting since Plains had a population of less than 700 at the time and it is about the same today.

There were also a few classified ads. One read: Want man/woman to feed and care for Holstein calves birth-calving, also experienced milkers, one shift per day. And other read: “Will load your pickup with chicken house fertilizer for $15.

Another publication, the Plains Statesman, must have started around the same time. I have issue 13/14 for April 24 and May 1, 1977.

It had a big story about a Peanut Tennis Classic tennis match featuring Chris Evert and The Phoenix Racquets playing against a Soviet team coming up on April 30.

Admission was $10 or $100 for a box seat. Box seat ticket holders also got an autographed picture of Billy Carter and a sack of peanuts from the Carter Peanut Warehouse.

There was also a story headlined “OSHA All Over Billy’s” It seems a tourist from Ohio didn’t like something about Billy’s gas station and filed a complaint with the Georgia office of OSHA. Carter was found to have, for example, a fire extinguisher that was 3” higher than it should have been mounted on the wall plus a little too much junk lying around the place.

Carter asked the OSHA person how many gas stations he had cited and the inspector said “one or two.” Carter figured his was the only one. He did comply.

“OSHA is a ridiculous outfit,” Carter was quoted as saying. “They send kids around to inspect peanuts who don’t know the difference between a peanut sheller and a cotton gin.”

The Statesman lasted a few months and apparently later folded. Then Billy Carter became involved and started a monthly Statesman that apparently started the fall of 1978. That issue was 36 pages.

One of the events is publicized was the upcoming Plains Georgia Peanut Festival and the end of November. It read: “A ton of peanut events including peanut eating contest, peanut sack race, peanut cooking recipes, peanut count contest, peanut toss, peanut sack race, peanut shelling, long distance peanut spitting and…”

Billy Carter apparently wasn’t bashful about making money from the Carter name. He had a “train” that pulled passenger cars he would pull around town and provided tours for visitors once a day. “Come see the Billy Express and take the Peanut Express Tour,” read one ad in the Statesman.

Of course many remember Billy Beer which was actually brewed here in Minnesota in Cold Spring.

Oh, for the days when the biggest issue was whether or not the president’s brother should brew beer!