Carters, Campaigners and Staff Reunite

Jimmy Carter’s big, toothy grin, his trademark when he was a longshot presidential candidate, was in full force Saturday as he swapped stories and fond memories in a 20-year reunion of his campaign and White House.

More than 700 people, from his vice president, Walter F. Mondale, to members of the “Peanut Brigade” of Georgians who knocked on doors for him in Iowa and New Hampshire, gathered for what the 73-year-old former president called “an emotional reunion.”

“The other thing that has permeated my consciousness, in a surprising fashion, has been the fun and the laughter and the pleasant reminiscences,” Carter said in an interview, that smile spreading again.

Jody Powell, his longtime press secretary, had the crowd laughing as he recalled Carter’s first Iowa TV appearance--on a morning cooking show for which he had to don a chef’s hat and apron.

Powell, returning from a late-night tavern visit the night before, told Carter that he had lined up a TV appearance, but saved the details until the drive to the station the next morning.

Carter admitted he almost refused but then came through by frying catfish fingers in an appearance that was frequently replayed around Iowa and probably helped him win the state caucuses.

Carter, who was inaugurated in 1977 after defeating President Ford in the general election, also recalled that in his first presidential campaign he and Powell often shared a double bed to save money.

Mondale added his favorite anecdotes, such as when the former president’s late mother, Lillian, helped make him feel at home during his first visit to the Carter hometown of Plains--by confiding that she had a bottle of bourbon tucked under the kitchen sink.

In a presentation Saturday morning, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, briefed the group about the activities of The Carter Center, a presidential library and the base for global projects he started in the aftermath of his landslide defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The center, marking its 15th year, is “an extension of what we did in the White House . . . the things we couldn’t get done because I just had one term,” Carter said.

Among its human rights, health and democracy efforts are mediating conflicts around the world, monitoring elections in emerging democracies, and expanding agriculture and health projects in Africa.