Oct.01

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Georgia on My Mind, Part III: It Was 100 Years Ago Today

Today, Jimmy Carter becomes the first U.S. president to live to 100 years of age. He's outlived the #2 president on the list, George H.W. Bush, by almost 6 years (and counting). Carter has also set a record for the longest lived post-presidency, at nearly 44 years (and counting). On that list, Carter is 12 years ahead of #2 Herbert Hoover, and is 20 years ahead of the next living president, Bill Clinton.

It's remarkable to think how different was the world into which Carter was born. Some of the events of that year:

• Babe Ruth was tearing up Major League Baseball, having won his first World Series as a Yankee the year before.
  
  
• Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a speech over the new-fangled technology of radio.
  
  
• After more than 600 years, the Ottoman Empire suffered its final collapse.
  
  
• U.S. Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson executed the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. It took them only 175 days, with just 74 stops.
  
  
• Chicago Soldier Field opened for business. It is still waiting, to this day, to be home to an NFL team.
  
  
• Adolf Hitler was released from prison, having just completed work on a book laying out his views.
  
  
• Vladimir Lenin died. So did Franz Kafka and legendary labor leader Samuel Gompers.
  
  
• The highest-grossing film was The Sea Hawk, which nobody has ever heard of. W.C. Fields and Clark Gable, who people HAVE heard of, made their film debuts.
  
  
• Ford cut prices on the Model T; by December a brand-new one could be had for the modest sum of $290 ($5,333 in 2024 dollars).
  
  
• Enterprising entrepreneurs invented Band-Aids, Popsicles, Wheaties, and Kleenex.

Carter was born into a poor family, and lived without electricity or running water until he was a teenager. That was not unusual in the days before the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. Because the Carters were poor, he was born in a hospital. That may seem counterintuitive, but back then, hospitals tended to be unclean and kind of dangerous (because of risk of infection; penicillin was 4 years from being invented when Carter was born). So, in that era, wealthy and middle-class people could afford to bring a doctor or midwife to their homes to aid in delivery. Only poor people had to schlep to a hospital for assistance. Consequently, Carter is the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital. Feel free to use that fact to win some bar bets.

As a centenarian, and one who commenced end-of-life care nearly 2 years ago, Carter isn't exactly going to be whooping it up today. However, he is going to have a gathering with his family, and his hometown of Plains will be holding some events. There was also a concert held in his honor a couple of weeks ago; it raised $1.2 million for the Carter Center. As regards birthday gifts, we only know about one: Led by country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers are building 30 homes for low-income people in St. Paul, MN, this week. Given what we know of Carter, we imagine that there is no gift he would appreciate more.

There is at least one more milestone left in Carter's life. He's expressed the wish that he would like to be able to cast a ballot for Kamala Harris. If he's going to do that via absentee ballot, he will have to wait until October 7. If he's going to vote early in person, he will have to wait until October 15. Despite his precarious health, we think he'll make it. Thereafter, it would not be too surprising if he decides it's time to go and be with Rosalynn again.

In any event, happy birthday, Mr. President! (Z)