Scuttlebucket

Wednesday night

I was down in Georgia visiting with former president Jimmy Carter, his wife Rosalynn, and their grown daughter, Amy. They lived in a large stone house from the turn of the last century. It was whitewashed, but the paint was peeling in a few places. Their dog, a friendly Irish Setter, ran to and fro in the street, which was quiet and deserted, at least for the moment. Later, we went for a walk in some nearby woods, and a member of our party called out, "What is that?!" I turned to see an ordinary metal bucket, turned upside down, scurrying across the forest floor. I walked over, picked it up, and found two adorable black, furry mammals inside, staring up at me. They were nondescript, so I wasn't sure what they were -- puppies? bears? hedgehogs? -- but they sure were cute. I said, "There you go, guys," thinking that I was doing them a favor. As soon as I said so, the critter who was slightly larger than the other crawled back under the bucket, and continued in the direction that he was originally headed.

*****

The Carters do live in Plains, Ga, but I've never seen a photo of their house, and don't know if they have a dog. Our old neighbors on 34th Street, the Depaus, (Depaws?) did own an Irish Setter. Beautiful dog. I haven't seen them (or their dog) in at least 30 years.

I never met President Carter, but my family did go to a Carter rally in Old Town, Alexandria in the fall of 1976, shortly before Carter beat President Ford. I was 14 at the time. I asked my dad if we could go, and he said yes. I recall that Admiral Elmo Zumwalt made a speech that day. He had crazy eyebrows. My brother Andrew and I snuck under the rope line to get around the crowd, and then stepped back behind the rope once we were directly in front of the podium. I doubt that we could get away with such shenanigans today. Much later I sent a photo that I took that day down to Plains, and former president Carter autographed it for me and sent it back. I think I still have it in a photo album somewhere in the storage unit.

I wonder what that bucket thing was about?