On a frigid Thursday in Washington, D.C., my husband of one year and I watched as Jimmy Carter, a plainspoken man from a town called Plains, Georgia, took the oath of office 48 years ago. He raised his right hand as Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the oath; his left hand rested on a family Bible opened to Micah 6:8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?â€
What I remember most was Aretha Franklin performing the haunting “Take Care of This House,†from Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway musical, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.†In this song, Abigail Adams is speaking to her husband, John: “Take care of this house. Keep it from harm.â€
It was so cold that day that I cut out right after the ceremony and took the Metro back to our apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. Carter was the first president to hold office since the shiny new subway system opened, and the Carter Inaugural Committee paid to make the system free all day.
Gary stayed downtown and braved the cold to watch the parade. I watched on TV. Carter had campaigned on a promise to eliminate the trappings of what he called the “imperial presidency,†so, breaking with history and security protocols, he and wife Rosalynn walked in the inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House. Gary had our little Instamatic camera — back when you thought carefully before snapping a shot, since you only had 24 or 36 photos on the film roll. He got close enough to take photo of Rosalynn Carter before a Secret Service agent strong-armed him back.
That year, I was working for Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W.Va., while Gary attended law school, so we scored a couple of tickets to one of the many inaugural balls held around the city. Carter didn’t make an appearance, but Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., did. He played the fiddle and sang, “Our Little Cabin Home on the Hill.†Byrd was Senate majority leader, and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
One of the first bills the Carter administration put forth was a public works revenue sharing measure meant to address runaway inflation. It was very similar to Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Money from that bill would build our city hall, where my husband currently serves as mayor of Richwood.
The Congress I worked for in 1977 was vastly different from today. The Democrats controlled both houses. The margin was 61-39 in the Senate. In the House, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 292-143, with Tip O’Neill as speaker.
Carter would have a fraught relationship with members of his own party over the next four years but, that first year, he managed to pass the Clean Water Act, Ethics in Government Act, a law to prevent discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace, funding for solar research and the creation of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
Forty years after his inauguration, Jimmy Carter would attend Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. This past week, though, his absence was sorely felt. Flags flying at half-staff following his funeral were raised Monday so as not to distract from the second Trump inauguration. Although he was quite unpopular when he left office, history has been kind to Carter. He lived up to the passage in Micah. He served justly. He showed mercy. He walked humbly.
I couldn’t watch Trump’s second swearing on Monday in the Capitol Rotunda. I had my first grownup job in that building, and images of the Jan. 6 attack four years ago are still too painful. Though Abigail Adams’ words in “Take Care of this House†referred to the White House, I am haunted by this passage:
“Care for this house. Shine it by hand. And keep it so clean The glow can be seen All over the land. Be careful at night. Check all the doors. If someone makes off with a dream, The dream will be yours. Take care of this house, Be always on call. For this house is the hope of us all.â€
Susan Johnson is a retired teacher living in Richwood.
