A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter Page A

watching this process, Doctor Thad’s dogs outside began making noises I had never heard before—something like a pack of wolves howling in concert. We looked out and saw them all sitting on their haunches, looking at the sky, and producing the weird mournful cry. When we went into the bedroom, we found that Doctor Thad had just died. Somehow, the dogs were grieving for him.
    Rosalynn and the boys reported many strange events and unexplained sounds while we lived there, but we never had any serious confrontations with creatures of the spirit world. One day while playing in the attic, our sons discovered a hidden room between the floor and the ceilings of the rooms below, with almost six feet of headroom. There was only a small chair in the space. We surmised that there had been a mentally impaired woman kept there by the family in earlier times, who may have wandered around with a lantern.
    Rosalynn and I now had time for some recreational activities, whichhad rarely been possible during my navy years. We bought golf clubs and began hitting balls in the field behind our house. After a few weeks, we joined some friends and drove to Dawson, where we played on the nine-hole course that was operated by the American Legion. We heard about a square dance club that met every Friday night and were soon enjoying these sessions with almost a hundred other members from the surrounding rural area. The club’s name was Meri Legs, from A meri can Leg ion. Dancing was strenuous and challenging, as one or two new steps were added each week to our repertoire. Wearing distinctive attire, we joined other clubs at state conventions and made many new friends. This membership was to change my life.
    We were also active in Plains Baptist Church, and soon both of us were teaching Bible lessons every Sunday morning. I was elected as one of the twelve deacons who were responsible for the affairs of the congregation, always submitting final decisions to be made by the assembled members. Rosalynn had been a Methodist, but she joined our church and was immersed in Baptism.
    During the time I served on the Sumter County Board of Education, the schools in Georgia were still racially segregated, but within these rigid social boundaries I wanted to equalize educational opportunities as much as possible. I suggested that we five board members visit all the schools so we could better understand conditions in the classrooms, and the other members agreed. Our first visits were to the white students and faculties, and we were quite satisfied with the two schools that included students at all levels and three others in rural areas that had only elementary students. They were nice brick buildings with adequate desks, recreation, music and art facilities, and up-to-date textbooks.
    The school superintendent informed us that there were twenty-six schools for black children, the large number necessary because buses were exclusively for white students and classes had to be within walking distance of black children’s homes. When we visited them we quickly learned that students had to share textbooks, which were tattered hand-me-downs from white schools; classes were conducted in rooms in churches and in some of the larger houses; there was no music or art instruction and fewdesks. I remember most vividly that many older students were sitting on tiny stools or chairs. Absenteeism was prevalent because attendance standards were quite low and not enforced since many children had to work in the fields during school months or because their parents were illiterate and saw no benefits from classroom teaching.
    After a few of these visits, the other board members declined to make any further excursions. With the advent of the civil rights movement, the state legislature began to make an effort to show that the “separate but equal” national policy was becoming somewhat more equal in order to preserve the separate. School buses were finally authorized for black students,