It's a nice size. I'm going crazy. Boston's news radio.
Back to the phones we go. My name is Dan Ray. This is night Side one quick funny, I well, one quick story. So in the campaign of seventy six, I had a great opportunity to interview Jimmy Carter at Logan Airport. It was a noon broadcast. I was working a Channel four at the time, and of course I spent thirty one years there, so it was been there.
I was there a long.
Time, and so I again set it up through Jody Powell's office. I get a one on one with Jimmy Carter at Logan Airport. He had spoken or appeared in Boston, and so it was a live shot at noontime top of the newscast, and I said, look, I'm just gonna ask him a bunch of questions. I want to know
if he's in favor of this opposed to that. And so I went through rapid fire, and forget what all the topics were, but you know, abortion, slash, to choose capital punishment, yes or no, whatever the topics of the day were, and I probably went through by the way. One of the mistakes I think that Jimmy Carter made was giving up giving Panama the Panama Canal to Panamon and hopefully that will get rescinded under president under President Trump, and was not rescinded under Trump the first time or
under President Reagan. But I think that was a huge mistake, and I think that was the time of when America was kind of withdrawing from the world, which turned out to be mistake. But he answered all the questions. It was all yes and no answers. You would favor capital punishment? I think he said, yes, Are you in favor of uh, you know, or choice on abortion? I think you're right to choose. However, I phrased the questions. I tried to
fit phase them almost like one two word questions. And he was given a yes, no, yes, no, yes, no. And we did the interviews about two minutes, and he answered all the questions. There was no heart, there was no dodging the questions, there was no trying to answer the question, well, you know on a certains No, it
was none of that, he responded. And a good friend of mine at the time told me that it was at that moment he was watching that interview he decided to hope for Jimmy Carter, because he did come across as a very different type of candidate for president. You asked him a question direct, you got a direct answer. Back to the phones. We go going to go to Sandy in West Roxbury. Sandy, you were next one night side.
Welcome, Hi Sandy, Hi Dan, how are you.
I'm doing great. What's your take on Jimmy Carter?
Well, I'm Jewish, says you know, and I'm in complete support of Nicole. Everything she said was right on. As we know, the press is not always favorable to the twoth Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. There was a really wonderful book. It was something like Nine Days in September, or maybe it was nine Days October, but it chronicled the peace talks in great detail. It was wonderful. And I agree with what you said that he couldn't really come right out and say, you know, you were just
in throw awful and blah blah blah. But definitely he really felt that he was real to give up a lot of things. And you know, because again as small as zerl is, and you often mentioned that they are very strong and they're very smart, and if the Arabs stopped fighting, so much among themselves. They could overtake the due in five seconds.
Yeah, no, I understand that. I also there are a lot of you know, politicians who look at the Middle East and they say that there has to be concessions.
I'm not in that category, as you probably know. Yes I do, but I never got a sense.
And again I'm be looking for to what Noel wants to send to me that I think he probably looked at it as how do I make a deal here which will secure peace? And by the way, peace is not always just the absence of war.
But I hear what you're saying, and I said, I do give credence to that. But he I know what he said about the Holocaust memorials absolutely true. You know that he didn't want so many Jews on the committee and most of the Holocaust vivors, which ones are you going to leave out?
Well, first of all, that's that if that is true, and I haven't seen it, but since you've said it, Nicole has said, I think that's an igorant statement.
Obviously totally.
Yeah.
There's a wonderful website ai s h dot com.
I've seen that, yes, yes, yeah.
And it just had a wonderful article called, you know, the contentious relationship between Carter and the Jews. Now Nixon, of course with anti Semiticans from the tapes. Yet he was the first one to help God to my ear. Yeah, yeah, and so you know a lot of times the private actions and the personal feelings can conflict. He Thank god, Richard Nixon knew that he had to help her, and he did, but he did. He was no fan of the Jews either. So but everything Nicole said was right on.
Okay, well, I will look at it. And again, I'm actually on that website that you're referring to AI s h.
What does that stand for? I'm trying to figure out what that, you know, uh is.
I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think it's a hebreward that means something like the fire, you know, And I could be totally wrong, but I that's what I think it is, you know, like inspiration, and you know that the Jews have a thing about the fire must never go out, referring back to the mccabees and the Hanica miracle when they only had enough like enough to light the manure for one day and by a miracle, it just never went out. And so in the temple.
There's always either well they don't have faus anymore, it's too dangerous, But there's always a red light that no matter what, stays on.
Ye again, I think one of the things I'm looking this is from that website. It says aiding Soviet Jews, Carter pressured, this is from the website, pressured the Soviet Union to allow more Refusenik Jews who wish to leave the USSR to emigrate. As a result of his pressure, it is possible that an extra twenty five thousand Jews were allowed to move to Israel or the US annually
when the famed Soviet dissided. Natan Sharansky, who I interviewed at the Kennedy Institute for the Senate and who was an amazing individual and I really had a wonderful interview with him, was arrested in Russia in nineteen seventy seven in charge of being an American spy. Shreensky's wife, a Vito, begged Carter to repudiate the charges. Carter agreed, publicly stating that Sharansky was not an American spy and helping pay the way for his eventual immigration.
Nearly a decade later to Israel.
So, having spent time with and I mentioned last hour with Sharansky, I never got any sense from Sharansky that he felt that Carter had done anything but help him. So again, I'm I'm speaking from some personal experience tonight that I've never spoken about before, but I mentioned I think you you know I mentioned Sharansky earlier in the last hour.
Yes, yes, I heard it.
It's an amazing individual. He happened to be born in the same year as I was born, and I remember just thinking about what he had gone through in his life as opposed to what I had gone through in my life, nothing like he had gone through in terms of the person.
So fortunate. I mean, I think of that all the time. Yes, you know, we're out under war. Most of us have never experienced the war on our own land, and I think all of us have never experienced the war in America certainly, well.
The closest we came was.
Yeah, yeah.
And the Israelis have undergone bombardment for for decades, decades, constant bombardment from people who do want to eradicate them.
As always, Andy, love you calls, Thank you so much, Thank you, Take care, you too. We'll be back in a moment.
I got a little bit of a break here, I got Larry Rick, and I got some room for you if you'd like.
I'm wondering if any.
Of you else had ever bumped into or met either candidate Jimmy Carter Governor Carter he ran in nineteen seventy and defeated Lester Maddox, who was an avowed racist. Maddox's nickname was Lester Pitcandle Maddox. He owned a restaurant I believe it was in Atlanta, but in Georgia, in which he banned black people from participants from going into his restaurant. I certainly if I was black, I wouldn't want to
give him that guy any money either either. But so he spoke out against, you know, segregation at a time when it wasn't necessarily popular in the South. So again, I think a lot of integrity. And when you saw Andrew Young speaking about him today and he delivered some very interesting remarks. We're going to continue along here. I'd love to hear from some people who at some point had interaction with Jimmy Carter. Now I know I'm going
to tell you my stories about Clinton Massachusetts. When Jimmy Carter came to Clinton, Massachusetts early on in his presidency March of nineteen seventy seven and spent the night there and addressed at Clinton town Hall. Little did he know that the next Democratic president who would be elected, uh, we'd have that last name of Clinton, Bill Clinton. Back on Nightside after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World, Nightside Studios on Dubbs News Radio.
Back to the phones we go. Let me go to Rick and Bill. Rick or Rick you went next on Nightside, right head?
Rick?
All right, how are you? Dan?
I do great appreciate you calling in love to get your perspective on President Jimmy Carter one hundred years old.
You know, I know, I know. I mean as a kid, I thought of him as Week because you know, I remember him selling the Panama Canal. I remember him not being able to get the hostages back, and then Reagan came in, and so I always thought of him as he was a week president. But the post presidency, obviously he did God's work on a regular basis, and that impressed me throughout the years, and so I look at the guy as as just an amazing example of a of a human. So he's the guy you want to
strive for. So I'm impressed by him, and I hope he had an easy death. He was an amazing guy, and he lived a long, good life and to everyone's benefit. And he was well loved. That's a good sign, you know, when you're well loved by the mass.
He spent two years in hospice, and I remember when a little less than two years. Remember, you know, when you hear someone has gone into hospice, you think, well, the days are numbered.
His days were, but his month's work, his years were. He and again, I remember you're from bill Ricca. You're probably not old enough.
I remember Merlington, but I live in bill Rica.
Now okay, well, yeah, okay, that's why I saw Bill Ricer up on the board here. You're probably not old enough to remember his visit to Clinton in nineteen seventy seven. I was a very youngryporder at the time, and they landed at hanscom Field, and I remember getting into a bit of a dust up with a Secret Service because we had been told we had to stand behind a rope. Uh and the president then he was, you know, president for about less than two months. March he was there
in March. Uh and uh, the Secret Service agent. We had to, you know, he's the Secret Service agent. Say, look, he's going to get off the plane. He's going to shake hands with some of the military personnel here and their families in Hanscom Field. And you people are supposed to stay behind the rope. And we were at that time, we were doing a live shot out there, and uh, and we were in those days. It was called being gemlocked.
You couldn't move the camera. If you move the camera, you break the signal.
Uh. And so we had no choice. We were gemlocked. Uh.
And so as soon as he got off the plane and started down the rope line, a bunch of the still photographers and some of the writers, the newspaper writers jumped over the rope line. Were jumped over the line and raced down who is where Carda was, where President Carter was. And one of the Secret Service guys came running up to us. I told you people stand behind the ropes, stand behind the ropes. And I was, you know, kind of young and cocky, and I said to him, Hey,
we are behind the ropes. Why don't you go chase those guys? And I made a comment, which I shouldn't have made. I said, you guys are always looking the wrong way. That's why, you know, we've had a couple of assassinations. And the guy looked at me like, how could you possibly say that? And once I said it, I realized it's a little probably was a little harsh. So they brought back the guy who was the special agent in charge, who was a guy who I knew, and he said, Dan.
Did you say that to the agent? So I said, yeah, I said it to him. I said, he's screaming at us, stay behind the ropes. We're behind the ropes. The people who jumped the ropes are running down. I understand.
He says, you know, I could take your credentials for that, and I said, look, if you want my credentials, take him.
I'm not going to lie to you. I said it. So he said, okay, fine, no problem.
Well those were the days where you yeah, and you had to stay gem luck. I mean, you'd lose the signal if you moved the camera. But also did think it was a gun or something like? Is that part of it too?
No?
No, no, no, no no no, We're just we will lock down, we will lock down.
So we had no ability to go beyond the ropes.
So the kicker to the story was that night Jimmy Carter spoke at Clinton Town Hall and then he was going to spend the evening at the home of a gentleman who had eight children, mister and Missus Thompson. The fellow's name was Gunner Thompson, and he was well known in town. So when President Carter spoke at Clinton town Hall, I could tell he was wrapping up, and I said to my camera crew we were not doing live. I said, let's get out of here. So they said, where are
we going. I said, just, you know, just let's quietly get out of here. So we left about five minutes early, and we drove to the home of Thompson and we set up in his driveway. Five minutes later. Five minutes later, I'm telling you, we're set up in Gunner Thompson's driveway, okay, and there's nobody there, I mean even, I mean that, no one's bothering us. And all of a sudden, up comes the presidential limo and President Carter gets out exactly
where I'm standing and we were live again. So we do a live shot with President Carter from Gunner Thompson's live from from his his driveway. Standing over Carter's shoulder while I'm doing the live shot with Carter is the same Secret Service agent who had given me a hard time that day. And the guy's looking to me like you son of you know who? And uh and so you know, I thought, that's great. We we out MANEUV and everybody. You know, it was a different time. It was a different time.
So Sean, you were smart about it. You got right on. I just wanted to thanks for that story. And I want to say, because I know my time is limited, but what impressed me a lot about Carter in recent times as I saw civil action for the first time about five years ago, and I said, well, I remember that as a kid because I grew up in Burlington. I lived in bill Rickon now for a dozen years.
But I that was ther Grace story in wr G.
Yeah, and unifors and everything and and and the Tannery the Beatrice bat and Tannery dumping from from one hundred and fifty years early or whatever. But what impressed me was it was their administration that added on the Department the Superfund to help Love Canal first in seventy nine, the poor people dying from from they went to the school where a chemical place was.
People didn't realize that, you know that that was outside of Buffalo, New York.
If a got mistake.
Yeah, and then Woobin was next, and it was Carter's administration who started the superfund. I believe it was a team of lawyers, federal lawyers to go after people to pay clean up and pay the lawsuits. And I remember as a kid, so I was delighted to read about that in more recent times five years ago or so, because I remember as a kid reading in the Daily Times the kids from Woven were dying. I was just
a young kid. I was born in sixty nine and I'm hanging out in Burlington having fun, playing street sports. And these kids in Wooburn are starting They're getting leukemia and they're dying. And it broke my heart. And so you probably reported on some of that. I bet I did back in the day.
As a matter of fact, there was an author by the name of Jonathan harr Haa r. Who wrote the definitive book on that whole WR race situation.
I heard of it.
Yeah.
WR Grace was horrible and universe wasn't helping, and then they opened up the bay. He never should have opened up the wells, but they did it anyway, and unfortunately lots of people died. But Carter's administration was willing to take action, and there's been eight hundred of some are super fun cases since then. Maybe not as bad as Wooburn and Love, but that's a great thing that Carter did.
Adding on to the EPA, that was really awesome, mom, because you can't bring back people who died unfortunate young deaths and so on, but you can do something about it. You can clean up the environment, and people still pullut to.
It today anyway, totally, I totally agree with you.
Stay with us because I want to tell one more story that involves that same Secret Service agent.
A couple of years later.
He had a long memory, and I will you know, as I'm sure you know, Jimmy Carter spoke at the opening of the Kennedy Library in nineteen seventy nine and that didn't.
Know, I don't remember all that stuff, but that you're good.
Just a few weeks I broadcast I was the anchor on that live broadcast that Saturday morning, and that was just a few weeks before Ted Kennedy was to announce that he was going.
To challenge Yeah.
Nineteen eighty Democratic primary, and his nephew Joseph Kennedy, who who was in Congress for a while, ripped Jimmy Carter. And I remember, you know, sitting there that day saying, oh my god, you know this this young guy. He wasn't in Congress yet he eventually was elected and succeeded Tip O'Neil in nineteen eighty six. And I was also the dad of the younger Joe Kennedy, who was in Congress and who ran against that marquee.
But he just went after Carter.
That that day, and I thought I felt very badly for Carter because Carter had shown the grace to come and be there at the opening of President John Kennedy's Presidential Library.
But he took shuck and Joe for oil.
Guy, the old Yeah, that's exactly.
Yeah, yeah, well no, yeah, he's he's one of the sons of he was, was he Joe's son, now.
Robert F. Kennedy's oldest son.
Yeah, yeah, and then and then Bobby Jr. All right, all right, that's a great story. Yeah, Jimmy Carter was a good guy, you know, I mean, maybe a bit weak when it came to dealing with situations other countries might not have taken them too seriously. But he did kind of walk into a difficult situation.
Well, we we were on the decline as a country, and and that's why he lost the decisions that he made. And I think that he felt that at this point maybe the US needed to kind of withdraw a little bit from the world stage. And it didn't work out too well with the hostage crisis. Uh as as Ronald Reagan once said that countries don't go to war because they're too strong. They get into wars because they're too weak, which I think is pretty interesting.
Hey, Rick, enjoy very much.
Thank you, Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Stay with us. I got I got a third story.
To tell, a.
Thank you, good night.
We'll take a break news at the bottom of the hour. I got a few couple more Jimmy Carter streets. But I want to hear from you guys, because I want to hear your recollections, your memories. He's you know, we we basically laid to rest as a nation today. Jimmy Carter the thirty ninth president of the United States, and those of us who lived while he was president will remember him. He may not have been the greatest president,
but he certainly was the greatest post president. And I think he was a man who has tried to do the best thing, but the best he could do for the country. But I think circumstances conspired against him. Back on Nights Side, I've got some open lines here six one seven, ten thirty six one seven, nine three. I can tell Jimmy Carter stories all night. I don't want to, but I've got a couple more I got to share with you.
We'll be back on Nights Side right after.
This Knights Side with Dan Ray on WOST his news radio.
So the story that I want to tell dealing with the Secret Service agent. Let's fast forward now. Ted Kennedy in nineteen eighty is running against Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination. And you remember Ted Kennedy had that memorable interview with Roger Mudd on CBS in which Mud simply asked him why he wanted to be president, and Ted Kennedy kind of tried to mumble his way through an answer, which was a horrific start to his effort to win
the Democratic nomination. So we were a to school done in Marion, Massachusett. I thk it's called Taper Academy, and we were there for a Ted Kennedy fundraiser, and we were once again behind the Secret Service ropeline. And at this point, once Ted Kennedy became a candidate for President's Secret Service, they tightened up security quite a bit for obvious reasons. So we were waiting for Kennedy to he
was nowhere. He was not due for another half an hour, and I wanted to use the men's room and I asked one of the Secret Service agents if I could go use the restaroom. He said, let me get you someone to take you down there. So I was in a school I didn't know. Secret Service agent came along. We walked down a long card it took a left, took a right, took another left in the right or whatever. And as we get to the men's room, the Secret Service agent looks at me and he says, do you remember me?
And I looked at him. I had no clue. I said, do I remember you?
He said, yeah, here were the guy that up a hands compelled in nineteen.
Seventy seventy since every time I come to Boston. I turned on the TV and I see your face. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm thinking of for so I'm now alone with this guy. The guy has a gun. Of course, it was just crazy, but he was really still up. He was still upset.
I said, now, wait a second, hold on here. And that was a couple of years ago at least, so you know, I was able to use the facility and escorted me back and the shim since so ess goes to show you when you when you get into a disagreement with a secret service agent, they have long memories, or at least this one did. Let's get back to the call. It's going to go to Larry in Reading, Massachusetts. Hey Larry, welcome next on nightsat How are.
You pretty good? Happy New Years? You're back on the radio.
And I've been back since January first. My friend I was here.
I know, all right, yeah, no it took.
When you take a few days, you take a week off, it seems like a long time.
Well, okay, I got a couple of days off next week, so please don't hope it against me.
But uh, you know what a few breaks into the year.
So Larry your your recollection, your story about Jimmy Carter, go ahead.
Well, I mean he did, he did a lot of good stuff, but he wasn't always the best on everything. And I thought he didn't win a Nobel Prize for having a peace treaty between the Israel and Egypt.
Well that's a big peace treaty because I think that of all the Arab countries in the Middle East, the one that militarily represented the greatest threat. Although Israel has stood up to the Arab countries on four occasions.
Now and and and succeeded.
And they they now have done great work in terms of disabling Hamas and Hezbollah and uh, you know the leadership of those organizations. But that's it was a very important peace treaty.
And I knew, I knew one of the marines that was on the rescue mission that was aborted.
Yeah, there were. It was it was funny. I just re reading about that, and it was funny. Someone mentioned, I think it was Noel mentioned that Shimon Perez was not happy with Jimmy Carter. And at this site Ai sh Ash, which apparently is a Hebrew word.
I'm familiar with what it means.
It talks about how that the day that these those helicopters went on that rescue mission in April of nineteen eighty, Shimon Perez was at the White House and apparently at some point, according to Perez, he said that Carter asked his advisors and other members of the delegation to stay outside and I should me, meaning Perez, into the Oval office. Now pres at that time was a former Prime minister
in Israel and been a military hero. According to Perez, wrote that he asked him Perez two questions, what I would do in his position regarding the American embassy hostages, and what were iterations would have made that Israel make regarding in Teby, remember the raid, and in Tebbi when Edie Amine had taken had taken held hostage an l jetliner. Perus that I told him that if there was any realistic possibility of a military option, I would take it.
As for in Tebbi, our greatest problem, I said, was the scarcity of information. But in the end we told ourselves that every military operation involves a gamble, and we decided to risk it. Carter said that my words had helped him. I did not know then that the helicopters were already on their way to the ill fated situation. I believe that there were eight helicopters. One of them
crashed in the desert, and I guess three hostages. No, I guess eight US military personnel died in that raid in April of nineteen eighty.
Well, the one good thing that came out of it was that the military started doing maintenance.
Well, there was a I think it was a dust storm that took them down, if I'm not mistaken.
Well, I'm not sure about that, could be the weather.
But well, they were going on. What you think about everybody they were trying to rescue. They were trying to rescue fifty embassy members. Okay, that's how many hostages were there. I remember when the hostage were finally released in January of nineteen eighty one, actually the day that that Carter left the White House and President Reagan took the oath of office.
I ended up on my way to the spot and spent.
A week in Wiesbaden trying to interview the American hostages, and it was successful and interviewing a couple of the American hostages. And I remember when we came home a week later. We were on the tarmac at Frankfurt taking off back to Boston and the plane in front of it was in front of us, was the the US flight that was bringing the hostages back to walk They were actually going to a military facility in New York
near near West Point. And then of course they went on and they had that big parade in Washington, and you might remember it, but the yellow the tire, Yellow Ribbon was the big song at the time, and that was the theme song for the American hostages. But as we watched them take off and we were taking off next, I felt a great deal of pride that those hostages had survived that ordeal.
And the other well, the other thing I remember is people talking about buying houses, getting mortgages and the well, it's the I know, the bank industrates were real high and the CD rates. I didn't have any money then, but the CD rates were the certificate of deposit rates were about eighteen percent.
Yes, sir.
And the mortgage and people think the mortgage rates are, oh, they're terrific because they're under ten percent. Well, the mortgage rates back then were twenty three percent.
Yes, yeah, because obviously the mortgage rates always have to be higher than the interest rates that the bank are lending.
That has to stay in relation.
And that was one of the issues that I think economic issues that cost Carter his presidency in nineteen eighty.
Much more than anything.
You know, we talk about this election where they say, well, what was more important the economy or the immigration issues. I think they both were important. But I think a lot of people we vote with our pocketbooks and with their wallets, and in nineteen eighty people didn't even realize that you had intra high interest rates, inflation. And remember even even Gerald Ford before Carter, he had some inflation. Remember they had these buttons whip inflation.
Now the win win.
You know.
But but that continued through Carter, and of course a lot of that was Opek was messing around with the
oil prices. You must remember gasoline gas lines. Oh yeah, So that was that that was the whole time that the president Carter was in office, and it was not a good time for the country, you know, from an economic point of view, and it cost him in the in his in his election, in his running against Ronald again in Ronald Red and had very two very successful four year terms, and at the end of it, the Soviet Union had fallen apart, and we had we were we were the big dog on the world, on the
world stage. Larry, I appreciate you call. Good good, good conversation.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Talk to you soon. We got a break. We come back.
I'm going to talk about interviewing Jimmy Carter after he was president. I remembered interviewing, not interviewing him, but asking him there had been a huge snowstorm in New England. This would have been I think early on in his presidency, and I remember it was a national news conference he held out of Rhode Island. I think it was in the wake of the Blizzard of seventy eight as a matter of fact, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts had really
been hit by the blizzard. And I had the first question in the news conference with then President Carter about what you know, what aid could could be brought to New England back back in the day, and say, but to identify youself, Dannry w BZ Boston Westinghouse Broadcasting, And I remember that the news director at the time was quite proud of the fact that I had gotten in not only the call letter is w BZ, but also the ownership Westinghouse Broadcasting.
Back at night'side, I got wide open lines.
If you have a Jimmy Carter memory or Jimmy Carter's story, I would love to hear from you. I have one more story that I want to tell about my visit to Plaines, Georgia in nineteen eighty six with then former President Carter. And he was a complete gentleman. Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. We'll be back right after this on night Side.
Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World light Side Studios on de w b Z the news radio.
I want to play one cut from President Biden today. He talked about his last visit with Jimmy Carter in Georgia, in Plains, Georgia. This is cut number twenty seven, please Rob.
In April twenty twenty one, Chill and I visited Jimmy and Roseline on a warm spring day down on Plans, Georgia.
I wanted to see.
Them Roselane medics front door with their signature smile together rendered a home that they had shared for almost seventy seven years of marriage. None assuming redbrig Ranch home reflects their modesty more than any trappings of power. He walked into the living room, where Jimmy greeted us like family. That day, just the four of us sat in the living room and shared memories that spanned almost six decades.
So I do have an opportunity to visit Plaines Georgia, Jimmy Carter and Plains Georgia, and I've told a little bit of this story before, but I'd like to finish
with it tonight. In nineteen eighty six, when Tip O'Neil was finishing his ten year term as Speaker of the House of Representatives, I had written an article for The Washington Post about his tenure as Speaker and had done some stories and was in the process of putting together a documentary which was entitled A Man of the House, which played it was a special on WBZ in nineteen eighty six, and in order to do that had great access to then Speaker O'Neill and interviewed him for the documentary,
and he also was kind enough to set us up for interviews with President, former President Ford and former President Carter, who he has had good relationships with good friendships with and I interviewed President Ford in Washington. There's a house across the street from the White House where former presidents stay. I think it's called the Blair House, if I'm not mistaken.
I interviewed President Ford there to interview Jimmy Carter. We went to Plains, Georgia, and I'd have to look at a map, but we obviously flew in and out of Atlanta, and we stayed the night before. I think it was in Athens, Georgia. I'd have to go back and double check that. But I remember the next day driving to planes and whether we were going north or south. I think we were going north, but I could be wrong. And I remember at one point looking out the car window,
and I'm a new Englander. I've never spent too much time in Georgia, but I was there that day. We had a couple of camera guys with us and a producer, and one of the camera guys actually was from New Orleans, although he was working for Channel four at the time. He had a fairly heavy Southern accent. His name was Glenn, and as we were driving along, I noticed these rows and rows of trees, and I wasn't sure what type of trees they were, if they were apple.
Trees or whatever.
And I asked Glenn, I said, Glenn, here from these what what type of trees are those? Those groves of trees there?
And Glenn kind of was surprised. I didn't know. And he looked at me and he said, those are pecan trees. He says.
Everybody knows pecan trees. I said, Glenn, I really didn't know pecans grew on trees.
But he's so.
Glenn said to me, well, let me ask you a question. And again I'm kind of giving you a little bit of his Southern accent. I don't want to make too much of it, but I said, what's that? He says, how do peanuts grow?
Now?
I assumed that everybody knew peanuts grew on a vine underground question. Jimmy Carter, who were going to see that day, was a peanut farmer.
So I just.
Didn't answer the question. I said, Glenn, I don't know. I said, I'm just a dumb Northerner. I didn't know what pecan trees. I don't know about peanuts. And conversation turned to, you know what we're going to ask Carter
about et cetera. So we got there and again and Carter just had like one secret service agent, and we sat down did a long interview, you know, primarily focused on his relationship with Tip O'Neil, and I remember we joked and we kidded about how that Tip O'Neil didn't know what grits were and didn't particularly like grits, and I said, well, I'll remind him that he should have some grits, and you know, all of that. And so we we finished our interview, and we had walked around
taken some pictures of us walking small little town. I mean literally, it's like almost a bus stop town. So when we had finished up, we went back and did a little bit more of an interview and President Carter said to me, he says, I really don't have much on the schedule for the rest of the day. Is there anything else you'd like to see and go in the town? You'll probably never be back in planes again. And I said, no, mister President, You've been very generous
with your time. Thank you so much. We really appreciate. We actually were interviewing at one of the homes which was owned by his mother, Lillian Carter. So I said, thank you so much for your courtesy and your hospitality. And I understood what Joe Biden was referencing today in the eulogy. He really made you feel at home. And he said he said, well, he says, if we're done, then then thank you so much and give my best a tip. And we said, we certainly will. And just
as he's leaving. Now the protocol when you're viewing someone at his stature, certainly a president of the United States, And this is not to denigrate the camera crew, but their job is to shoot the interview. My job is to interact with the reporter's job is to interact with.
The subject and interview the subject. So would you know.
It that as they're about to leave with shaking hands, we've taken some pictures and Glenn, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, has never opened said a to Jimmy Carter. He says, but the President, Carter, can I ask you a question? How did peanuts grow? And I thought to myself, oh my god, Jimmy Carter is going to think this is a Northern TV camera guy, photographer, and he's going to think that he's making fun of him, and I jumped in and said, mister President, I said, Glenn is
from New Orleans. He works with us in Boston. He's a Boston WBC camera guy, but he works. He grew up in New Orleans, and he does not know how peanuts grow. Jimmy Carter took about ten or fifteen minutes and just very clearly and very plainly explained patiently to Glenn how peanuts grew, and of course as a peanut farmer, which is how he made his living before he became a politician, a state senator and then the governor of Georgia.
He explained everything as patiently as you possibly could, and I breathed a big sigh of relief that Jimmy Carter realized that Glenn's question was genuine and it wasn't presented to him in a phony Southern accent. And that was my last meeting we actually no. I bumped into Jimmy Carter. He was at WBZ at some time, you think in the later eighties or the early nineties, and he just was on a book tour and again I met him, and he meet so many people. I said, you may
not I remember you. You interviewed me in playing at home on tip O'Neil, and he autographed a couple of baseballs for me, and so those are in a safe deposit box and they'll be passed on to my children.
So anyway, rest in peace, mister president.
You were You might not have been the greatest president, but you were a very decent man, a very successful post presidency. You represented yourself and your family very well. And tonight those comments that were alluded to, I'll have to learn more about them. Noel is a true and accurate and good chronic lure of history.
So I'm done for the night.
I'm about to jump on Facebook Nights Out with Dan Ray where I will be and we will give you a recap of tonight back tomorrow night. I will end as always, Tomorrow's Friday. You have a great Friday. Everyone. All dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's where my pal Charlie Ray is, who passed fifty years ago in February. That's why your pets are who have passed. They loved you and you love them, and I do believe you'll see them again. Hope see again tomorrow night,
Rob Brooks, Thanks very much, tonight. Thanks to all the callers, thanks to all the listeners, and thanks to Marito as well. Have a great Friday everyone, stay warm,