An Hour Before Daylight (1/3/2025)

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Earlier this week, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States died. He was 100 years old. He was the only President (so far) that had been a member of the Future Farmers of America. He often spoke warmly of his experience in the FFA.

His first elected position was as secretary of the Plains High School FFA chapter. Speaking at the National FFA State Presidents’ Conference in 1979 he stated that his first words as an elected official were “I keep an accurate record of all meetings and correspond with other secretaries wherever corn is grown and future farmers meet.”

Among the 32 books Carter wrote, one was titled An Hour Before Daylight. Published in 2001, the book contains memories of his rural boyhood including involvement with the Future Farmers of America.

Figure 1. Cover of An Hour Before Daylight. Young Jimmy Carter is on his horse “Lady.” If you want to learn more about agricultural life in the 1930s, this book provides valuable insight. It can be purchased for less than $10 from AbeBooks.

The first mention of the FFA appears on page 37 of the book. Carter is describing the arrangement of the pens and buildings on the home farm indicated there were a dozen A-frame hog farrowing structures. In describing the farrowing structures Carter wrote (p. 37) “I helped my daddy build [them] after bringing the innovative design home from my Future Farmers class in school.”

Later in the book we learn more about the agriculture classes and the FFA (pages 216-217}. Carter wrote:

There was certainly no assurance that I would ever go to the Naval Academy, so I prepared for other future possibilities. [Curator’s Note: Carter had an uncle in the Navy but because of the cost of college Jimmy was considering the Naval Academy and West Point as options because they didn’t cost.] The most natural would be as a farmer, so, along with more than half of the boys in high school. I concentrated on the Future Farmers of America (FFA) program. We took classes in the care and management of draft animals, beef and dairy cattle, hogs, crops and pastures, forestry. poultry, farm equipment and other related subjects, such as pest control and food processing. In the workshop, we practiced carpentry, blacksmithing, welding, and furniture making. Our agriculture teacher worked closely with each of our fathers to ensure that our work at school was compatible with what was being done on the farm.

The FFA was a tight-knit organization at the school, state, and national levels. We had competitions all the way up in public speaking, record keeping, the raising, showing, and judging of prime animals, and other crafts important to a successful leader in agriculture. (The only skill in which I excelled was cutting a rafter to fit a complicated roof design.) We derived a lot of unexpected advantages from this combination of academic and practical instruction. I was one of the FFA officers at school, have been to national conventions and am an honorary lifetime member. The agricultural studies have been of great benefit to me. Especially during my time in politics. I also studied typing and shorthand, which I used throughout college and in my writing career.

Apparently, the young Jimmy Carter paid special attention to his vo-ag teacher’s instruction in carpentry and furniture making. Earlier in the book he writes (p.36) “As I got older, I helped with all the jobs in the [home farm] shop, but was always most interested in working with wood, especially in shaping pieces with froe, plan, drawknife, and spokeshave.”

Jimmy’s father owned several tenant houses on his farm. The houses were very rudimentary and needed repairs at times. Carter wrote (p. 43) “Daddy made sure that we kept our tenant houses in good shape, with necessary repairs made during the winter months between harvest and land breaking time. This added to the skills I learned in the workshop.” Perhaps this experience was valuable to Jimmy later in his work with Habitat for Humanity.

After Carter left the presidency, he and his family (notably his wife Rosalyn) were actively involved in the construction or renovation of 4,477 houses for Habitat for Humanity. This started in 1984 and lasted for 35 years. Carter was not a figurehead or observer but was actually engaged in the sawing, hammering and nailing involved in building the houses.

Figure 2. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter working on a house in 2018.

A television station (WRAL) in Raleigh, North Carolina interviewed Denny Schlindwein, a former secret service agent, who was assigned to protect Carter after he left the White House. The interview was aired at 6:00 PM on December 30. 2024. In the interview Schlindwein called Carter “a master woodworker” and is extremely proud of the butcher block table Carter built for him to thank him for his service. Schlindwein now builds handicapped ramps for disabled people. He got involved in this activity because of his association with Carter in working with Habitat for Humanity.

Other Childhood Lessons Described in An Hour Before Daylight

On page 87 Carter describes the approaches to controlling pests on the farm. He wrote that rats would sometimes get into the crib where he “…kept feed for my ponies and for the calves for my school projects.” It appears that calves were part of his supervised farming program for the vocational agriculture class.

Plowing with mules or horses was entrusted only to the most experienced and trusted farm hands on the Carter farm.  One of Jimmy’s goals during his youth (p. 165) was to be trusted with plowing the crops and “…to be able to do a man’s work. This equaled [to] any other ambition I’ve ever had in my life. It involved learning how to plant and cultivate a crop…the practical experience came step by step, when I adjusted and used turning plows, harrows, fertilizer distributors, planters, and cultivating equipment.”

Carter stated (p. 165) “A turning point came when Daddy finally entrusted me with the cultivation of his precious crops, beginning with corn and, a year or so later, with cotton and peanuts. The long days in the field were tiring, but in addition to the exaltation of being treated as an adult, the skill required made it challenging and gratifying when successful.”

At an early age, Jimmy Carter demonstrated his entrepreneurial skills. He boiled peanuts (starting at the age of 5) at home and then sold them in bags in Plains, Georgia (p. 146-152). At the age of 8 Jimmy had earned enough money by selling boiled peanuts to buy five bales of cotton at five cents a pound. The bales were stored in a shed on the family farm and sold for eighteen cents a pound several years later. Jimmy took the profit and bought five tenant houses at an estate sale which he then rented for $2 to $5. Later the houses were sold for three times what Jimmy paid for them.

During his youth Jimmy spent much of his spare time hunting and fishing. He particularly was fond of quail hunting but also hunted squirrels, opossums, and racoons.

The farm job Carter hated the most was “mopping cotton.” In case you don’t know what mopping cotton is (I didn’t) it is applying a mixture of molasses and poison to cotton plants with a mop brush to control insects. Carter wrote (p. 180):

Mopping cotton was a terrible job. The molasses attracted swarms of flies and honey bees…They would cover the barrel and buckets and follow us through the field…[My pants} would quickly become saturated with the mixture, and would stick to my legs in a most uncomfortable manner. In fact, everything about me was sticky….at night my pants wouldn’t fold, but would stand erect in a corner against the furniture…It was particularly disgusting to put them back on in the mornings.

While reading An Hour Before Daylight it became obvious that the young Jimmy Carter knew agriculture. His thorough details about butchering hogs when it got cold, growing watermelons, sugar cane, sweet potatoes and corn and his experiences with peanuts and cotton indicate that he knew and experienced agriculture.

Carter’s closest childhood friends were Black. They hunted, fished and went swimming together. They did everything together except attend the same school and church. When Jimmy was 14 years old, A. D. and Edmund, two of his closest Black friends, opened a farm gate and stepped back to let Jimmy go first. This action bothered Jimmy. At first he thought they were planning a trick or a prank; but it wasn’t. Carter wrote (p. 230). “It was a small act but a deeply symbolic one. After that, they often treated me with some deference.” Apparently, the friends’ parents told the boys how they were supposed to act around white people. This difference in attitude and actions bothered Carter greatly.

Jimmy Carter and the FFA in Later Years

This Footnote focused on Jimmy Carter’s formative years. To learn more about his Navy years, being governor of Georgia and eventually President of the United States there are numerous online references. One might refer to his official biography at the Carter Center.

Some of Carter’s later activities with the FFA Include:

  • Speaking at the National FFA convention in 1975 (this was before his presidency).
  • Became a FFA Alumni Life Member in 1977, He had previously joined the Alumni.
  • Speaking at the National FFA Convention in 1978
  • Speaking at the State Presidents Conference in 1979
  • Donated his FFA jacket to the Smithsonian in 2014

Figure 3. From the 1978 National FFA Convention Proceedings.

Some articles that focus on Jimmy Carter that appeared in The National Future Farmer magazine are:

A video of the adult Jimmy Carter narrating the FFA Creed in 2014 can be found at https://vimeo.com/856406816. His experiences growing up on a farm resonate loudly in the second paragraph of the Creed:

I believe that to live and work on a good farm, or to be engaged in other agricultural pursuits, is pleasant as well as challenging; for I know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life and hold an inborn fondness for those associations which, even in hours of discouragement, I cannot deny.

 Concluding Remarks

If you are a teacher you might want to introduce your students to Jimmy Carter since most of the students were born long after he was president. As a teenager he led a somewhat normal life for a boy growing up in a rural community during the 1930s. If he could become the president, perhaps one of your students could also. This fact could merit a good discussion.

At the conclusion of a FFA chapter meeting the President states “As we mingle with others, let us be diligent in labor, just in our dealings, courteous to everyone, and, above all, honest and fair in the game of life.” Jimmy Carter lived by these words. It would be good advice for all of us to follow.

Have a Great New Year.