BRUSH WITH FAME
Shaking hands with President Jimmy Carter
My first time on an airplane was to visit my cousins, the Dudleys, in Cheverly, Maryland, in 1979. Cousin Ed, as I called the father of my cousins Karen-Ann and Terry, worked at the communications center inside the White House, and was authorized to take us on a private tour.
Ed was on a first-name basis with everyone we met walking down the long hallways. We’d just exited the Oval Office, when someone pulled Ed aside to tell him the president was arriving. “Let’s go,” Ed said.
We hustled onto the White
House lawn, where brass stanchions and crimson ropes corralled the gathering crowd. Men in suits and dark glasses, holding walkie-talkies, ran onto the lawn. We covered our ears and squinted as a helicopter landed on the carpet of green. Then the door opened and the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, stepped out.
First lady Rosalynn Carter joined him from the White House and together they greeted the people who’d gathered on the lawn. I took photos with my little camera. Ed pushed us tightly against the silk ropes so that we could shake hands with the president and first lady.
My photos turned out grainy, but about a week after I got home, I received a color photo of me shaking hands with President Carter. Ed had tracked down one of the official photographers from that day to get the picture for me.
I’ll always be grateful to my dear Cousin Ed for making the first of my many life’s adventures the most memorable.