How Carter's Clan Beat Bugs

New York Post ^ | 12 January 2008 | Page Six Richard Johnson et al

[attiladhun2]

Well, he sure gave it to us while he was President. You know what they say, if you’ll pitch, you’ll catch.

[llevrok]

"Momma? How come Jimmauh's lips look like livah?"

"well Billah, baby Jimmah gets a hankerin' for rat pizon now an aginn."

[coalman]

Gee,and he still grows up to be the absolute worst president that there has been or ever will be,and after his presidential disaster,goes on to drag America through the mud and embrace most enemies we have,,

[GraceCoolidge]

From what I’ve read, the Carter family actually was quite well off by the standards of that time, in that area. His mother worked as a nurse (from what I’ve read, he was raised primarily by his father and hired nannies) and his father was a successful business owner. And in any event, I really don’t know what he thinks recollections of his childhood enema experiences is going to add to the historical record. As a matter of trivia, Jimmy Carter was the first US president born in a hospital.

[sofaman]

to quote Spike Milligan, Jimmah has a face “like a dog’s bum with a hat on.”

[ronnie raygun]

Did Carter say RATS? growing up with rats have certainly influenced him a great deal.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Y'all come back, Cousin Jimmy, hear?

[penowa]

"Worse yet were common ailments like tapeworm, hookworm and lice infestations..."

And I thought that W was the first President to have the White House fumigated after the previous occupant departed. Little did I know the Reagans faced the same situation until Jimmah informed us of his family afflictions.

[WVNan]

Believe it or not life really was like that in Ga. when jimmy was growing up. I know because it was exactly like that in rural Tenn. where I lived during that time. The South was not a pretty place after the Civil War, and didn't get much better before the Great Depression hit. The South didn't really pull out of poverty until WWII. War plants saved the South.

We really did have huge rats. We would have "rat killings" at the barn by smoking them out and whapping them with shovels. Flies were awful and we too hung the sticky strips around the ceiling in the house. Didn't help much since the doors and windows had no screens. Today's generation has no idea what hard times are like. I pray they never do.

[ReignOfError]

I just didn't realize how bad things were in Georgia.

It's a tropical climate. Bugs and rodents are a fact of life. It's not a factor of "how bad" -- it's just different. I have fought bugs, but I have never shoveled snow. Seriously, not once. Around here, we clear snow with a broom -- and if that doesn't work, we just stay home.

i was raised in, and live in, the Atlanta area. We never had a serious infestation, but they were in the surrounding environment, and they wanted in. Many was the time I had to stomp a cockroach or swat a fly. I never saw a rat or mouse in the house or heard them scratching in the walls, but I saw their signs in the basement. We put out poison and they did not come back.

A digression: My college roommate, whom I'll call Mark because that's his name, had a girlfriend I'll call Amy, because that's her name. Amy was a PETA-type who did not condone the killing of anything. She also wigged out at the presence of bugs. That always struck me as the height of hypocrisy. Either accept them or kill them. Or take an ad-hoc approach to the decision.

One day, we were sitting in the dorm with the doors and windows open, enjoying the warm, fresh air. A cockroach about an inch and a half long flew in and landed on the wall. Amy wigged. Mark leapt. He chased the bug up the wall with a plastic cup, trying to trap it and release it outside. Amy kept yelling, and Mark kept chasing, but the bug kept escaping his grasp.

The roach took flight again, escaped Mark's attempts at capture, and crossed the room, flying close enough to Amy that she took her wig-out to a whole new level. It landed on the opposite wall ad began crawling up it. I saw Mark coming across the room with cup in hand, and knew what I had to do.

i swatted the roach to oblivion, With my bare hand. I'm from Georgia; we're not squeamish. Mark gasped; Amy got up and left. Later, Mark accused me of intentionally trying to shock Amy. I told him, "If I wanted to be shocking, I would have licked my palm and said, 'yummy!'"

That pretty much ended the conversation.

[csmusaret]

Jimmy was so poor his Mamma cut holes in his pants pockets so he would have something to play with.

[ReignOfError]

Miss Lillian (Jimmy’s mother) was indeed a nurse; When her kids were grown, she joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer. Say what you will about Jimmy, but Miss Lillian walked the walk. A tough old bird. A steel magnolia.

[Lokibob]

He dated a woman who wore flea collars as garter belts.

.....Bob