34: “ROSALYNN CARTER LOOKED AT ME!”

I was only in my second season of visiting Presidential sites and all six of those pilgrimages had taken place outside of my home state of Michigan.  That all changed on Monday September 22, 2014 when I found myself in the camera case and headed for Grand Rapids; a fairly large city on the western side of the Great Lakes State. The highlight of the trip was a scheduled book signing by former President Jimmy Carter which was slated to start at 3:45pm. 

As excited as I was for an opportunity to meet a President, there was a handful of other Presidential sites that were on the agenda first.  After all, Grand Rapids was home to President Gerald Ford; it’s the city where he grew up and where he was married. It’s also the location of his Presidential Museum and his final resting place. For me, it doesn’t get any better than this – a visit with a dead President and then an opportunity to meet a live one!

Once again Bob Moldenhauer had joined my photographer and me for this one-day cross-state adventure.  We left town at 5:00am because we knew it would take about three hours to make the 183-mile trek to Grand Rapids. We needed enough time to visit all five of Gerald Ford’s homes, plus his Presidential Museum and grave; and still get in line to meet Carter no later than 2:30pm.  It was an ambitious timeline, but we were veterans of keeping a tight schedule and very confident that we could pull it off. In an effort to avoid zig-zagging all around Grand Rapids, a make-shift map was created with approximate locations of each Ford house.

The first home that we visited was in East Grand Rapids and was located on Rosewood Avenue; we were parked in front of the house right at 8:15am.  The home looked nice; it was a two-story white-sided home with a small portico over the front door.  Young Leslie Lynch King, Jr. (Gerald Ford’s birth name) lived in that home for less than two years; from 1922 to ’23.

From Rosewood Avenue, we headed south to Santa Cruz Drive – a street that was also located in East Grand Rapids.  In that Ford house, the future President lived with his parents in 1934 when he came home from college.  For an older home, the two and a half story brick house looked to be in immaculate shape. And why wouldn’t it be? A Michigan Wolverine football stud, who later went on to become President, once lived there.

Our third stop on the Gerald Ford home tour was a few miles from Santa Cruz Drive and it was a place where young King lived with his mother upon their arrival to Grand Rapids in 1913. The home was located in a neighborhood that didn’t make me feel overly comfortable.  As a matter of fact, I was not set on the porch – mainly because it appeared that someone was inside the dwelling and I didn’t want to possibly get shot.  It also appeared that the porch was in disrepair as the bottom step was dilapidated and I surely didn’t want my photographer to trip and drop me to my death; especially in that neighborhood.

The ranch-style house was brown with yellow trim and young King lived there with his mother for a handful of years – from 1913 to 1917.  I viewed that early boyhood home as sacred place as it was the first house in Michigan to be home to a future President. But even though I looked at the historic dwelling as a shrine, it appeared that the current owners didn’t care one iota about history or Gerald Ford.

We visited the first three Ford houses in an hour and by 9:15am we were en-route to the fourth. I was looking forward to my visit of the Union Street house as it was the place that Ford had most vividly remembered from his childhood; plus, it had been designated as a historical landmark.

During Ford’s Presidency, he stated that the boyhood home on Grand Rapids’ Union Street was the place he remembered most fondly; and some of his childhood memories came from learning how to play penny-ante poker in the garage behind the house. Ford had lived in the house for seven years, beginning in 1923.

As I posed for a few photos in the front yard, a curious next-door neighbor shouted out from her door: “Who are you?”  At first, I was disappointed that she didn’t recognize me; but perhaps she didn’t see me clutched in the left hand of my photographer.  It did surprise us, however, that the neighbor seemed uneasy with “tourists” looking at the boyhood home of Gerald Ford. After all, there was a historical marker situated along the walkway leading up to the front porch so we thought the owner wanted some notoriety for their historic dwelling. From the driveway we could see the garage that Ford once spoke about.  As we stood there for a minute or two, I could almost hear young Ford yell out to a childhood friend: “I’ll see your penny and raise you another penny.”

When it seemed to us that the owners were not home, even though there was a vehicle parked near the historic garage, my photographer walked up onto the porch and placed me alongside one of the support columns.  At the moment I thought it was a ballsy move, but that’s just him. Ol’ Tom figures he can talk his way into placing me on anything and anywhere; well, with the exception of “The General’s” tomb that is.

The final Ford home of the day was located a short distance from the Union Street house and it was in a very nice neighborhood along Washington Street.  Since that house was the first home that Gerald and Betty Ford lived in after they were married in 1948, I would’ve thought that we’d see a historical marker in front of the house.  But that wasn’t the case – there was nothing near the house that indicated the home was once lived in by a President of the United States.

After I had posed for a photo standing in the front yard of the historic house, my photographer decided to set me on the front porch – even though the owners seemed to be inside. I wasn’t a fan of that bold move, but he never listens to my opinion anyway.

At about 10:15am, we wanted to make a stop at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids before we headed to Ford’s Presidential Museum.  It took only 10 minutes to make the three-mile drive across town as the morning traffic was fairly light. I thought it was cool that we were going to that church as it had played an important part in the life of Gerald Ford.  Not only was it the site of his Grand Rapids funeral service in January of 2007; it was also where the future President married Elizabeth Bloomer on October 15, 1948. Once we were there, I was carried to the front of the church where I posed for a few images; which at that time the church was bathed in bright sunlight under a pure blue sky.

Next, we wanted to venture inside, but it seemed as though no one was in the building; the parking lot was completely empty and there wasn’t a soul in sight. Not one to give up, however, my photographer tried to open the front door and once again we were in luck – the door was unlocked. Within a few minutes of entering the church, we unexpectedly ran into the caretaker of the building and he enthusiastically guided us down a hallway and into the sanctuary. Once there, my cameraman placed me on the floor in front of the altar; which was the same spot where Gerald Ford’s casket was situated during his funeral on January 3, 2007.

Once we captured our desired photos, we stuck around for a few extra minutes as the caretaker was interested in hearing some of the memorable tales from our Presidential site adventures.  We could’ve stayed there for an hour or two talking with him, but the clock was ticking and we didn’t want to be late for the Jimmy Carter book signing event. We still had Ford’s museum and gravesite to visit – which were next on the agenda.

At 11:15am I was once again on the back seat of the Avenger as we headed into downtown Grand Rapids for our visit to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.  I was excited because I knew we would visit Ford’s gravesite before we headed into the museum; a grave that was the 16th of my Presidential site career. From the parking lot, I was carried along a sidewalk that was located near the Grand River.  From that vantage point, I got a great look at the exterior of the Ford Museum as we headed towards the burial site that was located about 50 yards north of the museum. Gerald Ford had died on December 26. 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California from a long battle with heart and vascular issues.  At the time of his death, Ford was the longest-lived President at 93 years, 165 days.

We had been at Ford’s gravesite for only about five-minutes before we got yelled at by security.  My photographer wanted to set me on the top of the wall for a photo; but that idea was squelched very quickly.  I wasn’t quite sure where the security guy had come from, but as soon as my photographer tried to walk up the grassy slope behind the stone wall he was stopped. I began to wonder if my Gorilla Glue smelled like a glazed donut and that odor gave us away.

As thrilled as I was to be at the grave of Gerald Ford, I quickly realized that my photographer really didn’t care a lot about my safety. In the past, I had travelled with him to two safety conferences; yet that daring lummox had the nerve to hang me by my recently fractured pony tail to the letter “R” of Ford’s middle initial. In that position, I was four-feet above the granite surface beneath me and I had to pray that the Gorilla Glue that held my hair to my head and the Elmer’s Tack and Stick that kept my head attached to the spring didn’t fail. Had I fallen, Tom and Bob would’ve spent a lot of time picking the pieces of me up and my chance to meet Jimmy Carter would’ve been smashed as well.

When the photoshoot at the Burial Site was finished, I was carried back to the Presidential Museum for a handful of exterior photos before we went inside. At one point I posed for a photo on the lower sidewalk in front of the museum. It was on that sidewalk that Ford’s casket had been carried to the tomb on January 3, 2007.

Finished with our photos outside, we had about two hours to see everything inside the museum before we needed to leave for the Community College and our rendezvous with the Carter’s. The museum featured artifacts and information from all aspects of Gerald Ford’s life and I got as close as possible to the ones that interested me the most.

We had finished our tour of Gerald Ford’s museum at roughly 1:30pm, which gave us plenty of time to make the 1.2-mile drive to the Grand Rapids Community College.  Although the Jimmy Carter book signing wasn’t scheduled to start until 3:45pm, we opted to be early; get the autograph; and then get our prime seats for the lecture in the adjacent building. When we arrived at the community college’s Calkin Science Center, there was already a long line of people who were waiting to meet President Carter for an autograph.  From my place inside the camera case, I could see people standing in a line that stretched down the sidewalk and around the side of the science center.  I estimated there were 300 people already there; and we still had two hours to wait before Carter was scheduled to make his appearance.

As we waited, I thought to myself: “It could be worse – it could be raining”.  But it wasn’t; the weather was perfect, and we just had to put in our time.  I had it easy; I was kicked back and relaxed in the confines of my protective case as I waited for my chance to be photographed in the hands of our 39^th President. I was thinking that there had been only 43 different men in our history to be President of the United States and I was about to meet one of them. I wondered if President Carter would say anything about “the real” Thomas Jefferson as he looked at me; or would he ask my photographer to tell him which Presidential sites I had been to and whether or not I had been to Plains yet. I wasn’t asking for much; I simply wanted my photographer to snap an image of Jimmy Carter holding me securely in his 89-year-old grasp. That’s when I thought to myself: “The old guy wouldn’t drop me, would he? Maybe Rosalynn should hold me instead of Jimmy – she’s only 87.”

At roughly 3:30pm the line began to move; and by 4:15 we had made our way inside the building.  And that’s when we saw the notice; in other words, the bad news: The Secret Service had posted a sign that stated there would be no packages, cases, purses, bags, or cameras allowed inside the book signing area; and photography of any kind was strictly prohibited.

I was devastated; bad thoughts raced through my resin-filled mind about the Secret Service. My chances of meeting my first President just went down the tubes. Even though the sign didn’t say “no bobble heads”, my photographer made me stay in the camera case that was placed inside the ‘bag check’ room. The last thing I saw after getting stowed away in that room was Tom and Bob as they headed to meet Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Both guys had their $28 book titled ‘A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power’ in their hands and ready for Jimmy’s signature.

 The autograph session last only about a half hour and the guys were back to get me out of hock. From the science center, we hurriedly walked next door to the Ford Fieldhouse; which was where Jimmy and Rosalynn were scheduled to speak about diversity after they finished the book signing. As we waited in those seats for the arrival of the Carter’s, I overheard Bob and my photographer talk about the autograph session with the 89-year old Jimmy Carter.  Tom mentioned that he shook Carter’s hand immediately after Jimmy signed the book; then the President noticed his Detroit Tigers apparel and mentioned that he was also a baseball fan – an Atlanta Braves fan to be exact.  For about a minute or so, the two compared the Tigers and the Braves; each agreed that both teams were having ‘off years’.  The last thing that was mentioned about the signing was the fact that Rosalynn was in the room as well and was available to sign a book that she had written.  Although the two guys did greet her with a friendly “hello” as they walked past her table, they did not buy her book nor did they get an autograph.

At about 5:30pm, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were led into the room and they took their seats behind a long table on the stage.  At that moment, I got my first look at a living former President and his wife; I was shaking with excitement.   As the President delivered his speech, my photographer held me aloft and attempted to capture photos of me with the Carter’s in the background.  That photoshoot was a challenge – the stage was brightly lit while the seating area was fairly dark. We were also about 50-feet from the President and when the camera’s zoom feature was used, my head looked huge in the image.

I wasn’t overly enthused about the topic of the lecture; for me it would have been better to hear Jimmy talk about what it was like to live in the White House. It was still great, however, to hear and see a living former President deliver an address in person. I found it heartwarming the way President Carter opened the lecture by mentioning a friend of his who once lived in Grand Rapids. Carter said in his southern drawl: “Grand Rapids has a special hold on my heart because I think the finest public servant I’ve ever known came from Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was my personal friend; Betty was Rose’s personal friend; his children were my children’s personal friends; and when we had the 200th celebration of the birth of the White House, the national historians who came there to speak all agreed that the two closest associations between former Presidents in history of America were between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and I am deeply grateful for that honor.”

  I would’ve given anything to have stood on that table next to Jimmy Carter’s bottle of Dasani water, but I had to settle for a long-distance attempt at a posed photo instead.  Someday, and hopefully before the Carter’s get too much older,  I will be able to meet Jimmy and Rosalynn.  There was one time during their lecture when I thought Rosalynn looked directly at me from her seat on the stage. It’s likely at that moment she thought: “That sure is a good-looking bobble head!”

When the lecture and Q&A was finished, we left the building and quickly headed for the Avenger.  We had a three-hour drive ahead of us and it was already past 8:00pm.  The 180-plus mile drive was uneventful; the only talk I heard was centered on when and where our next Presidential trip was going to take place.  At that moment, the two guys in the front seat decided to make a late October trip to Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  As always, they knew I would be ready to go – even though Henry Ford wasn’t a President.