The Olive Is Out Of The Jar

Let the “Substackery” continue!

That was fun!

Thanks to all of you who read and—in some cases—actually enjoyed my first posting on this platform the other day. For those who missed it, here’s a brief summary: an old dog finds a new and more receptive place to inflict his blathering on an unsuspecting public, hoping hilarity, poignancy and insight ensue. Can’t make any promises about their frequency moving forward.

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This second missive comes as 2024 draws to a close and as we remember the life and times of President Jimmy Carter. Others can do a much finer job of giving perspective on his four eventful years on the job as well as his inspiring post-political life. Personally, seeing the old videotape coverage of the Carter Administration brings back memories of my early radio days at WSPT Stevens Point. I’d just dropped out of college to snag that oh-so-elusive first full time job that alluded so many grads during that era. Carter would be the first Commander in Chief I’d ever cover—albeit from quite a distance—as he landed at Mosinee’s Central Wisconsin Airport that March day in 1979. He’d come to honor U.S. Representative Dave Obey’s ten years in Washington at a time when the northern Wisconsin district Obey served was as blue as Lake Superior. There was buzz that the President’s visit might not happen—a little thing we remember as “Three Mile Island” happened just a couple of days before the Obey event which the President did, indeed attend, the threat of a potential nuclear meltdown apparently averted. My “coverage” started and ended at CWA that day, watching Air Force One land and depart—others got to cover Carter’s Wausau speech.

Just seven months later, his Presidency and the course of world events would be forever changed as Iranian protesters seized the U. S. Embassy in Tehran as well as the 53 American workers inside, the incident the offshoot of Carter’s decision to allow the recently-deposed Shah of Iran to come to the States for cancer treatment.

I’d have a much more personal occasion with the former President years later when he was a guest on our morning radio show on Milwaukee’s WKTI. I don’t remember the year but I believe the former Commander in Chief was on the phone to tout one of the many books he would write after leaving the White House. I DO recall that radio partner Bob Reitman and I were more than a little nervous about the prospect of chatting with someone who’d once had a finger on the nuclear button (or, at the very least access to same), and being amazed afterward at how honest, forthcoming and easy Carter was to talk to during the course of the chat. We were also relieved that we didn’t do anything to create an international incident.

2024 is about to become 2025. Our country is about to witness two extraordinary events within a few weeks of each other: the funeral of the nation’s 39th Commander in Chief, followed by the inauguration of its 47th. To those under age 60, the Carter Administration is the stuff of history books and grainy TV/YouTube footage, one that played out as disco ruled the airwaves, when shows like “Dallas” and “Dukes of Hazard” ruled television, when prime time network fare was still a thing. For me, the Carter days remain fresh, having shaped so much of where we are as a country and world today. Then there’s his life after the White House which folks my age can use a road map to what someone can accomplish in their later years. May we all be so generous, giving and inspiring.

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