European Childhood Memories of Growing Up With Jimmy Carter as “My First US President”

Remembering President Carter’s compassion, integrity, and environmental legacy

Official Portrait of President Jimmy Carter, May 1, 1978. (photo: Department of Defense, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

In the collective memory of many Americans, there’s often a distinct recollection of their “first President” — not necessarily the one in office when they were born, but the one who made the earliest impression.

“My first President”

I grew up in Europe, where we closely followed anything that happened in America. Many non-American readers will likely recognize that they also have a clear memory of the first US President they can remember.

For me, that President is Jimmy Carter, whose state funeral I just watched online. I remember my father telling me while we were having breakfast how he narrowly defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. I was eleven and fascinated by the country of cowboys, Hollywood, music, and, most of all, NASA’s space programs.

I was vaguely aware of Gerald Ford, who had taken over after Richard Nixon’s resignation. I knew about Watergate but imagined it as a failed break-in by the kind of masked burglars I saw daily in my comic books. Years later, while watching All the President’s Men, I was slightly disappointed to learn that…