Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Today our “Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Special” on the Simple Living series will air on UNC-TV in primetime at 6 p.m. We are so excited and proud of the team work that went into making this program. Bob Wells did a great job of coordinating the shoot. Frank did an excellent job scripting it and pulling out the important footage for the show, as well as in prepping me for the interview. Our shooters—David Dalton and Evan McIntosh—worked at peak levels.

Getting the chance to devote a show to Jimmy Carter for me was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Frank and I have always been fans of the Carters—their visionary leadership in trying to reduce our dependence on foreign oil back in the 1970s when he was our president and their attempt to live by their values—even when in the White House. We’d wanted for so long to interview them and, when it finally came through, we were elated. One of the secrets to the Carters’ success, we quickly discerned, was in surrounding themselves with wonderful people: not only at the Carter Center in Atlanta, but in Plains. It seems the entire town loves them both and went to work for them when the Carters were running for office. This spirit of solidarity and boosterism exists today in Plains when everyone takes time to share their stories about the Carters with visitors as well as their form of simple living, Plains,Georgia-style. The Carters were not disadvantaged in coming from a small town such as Plains, but very much advantaged by it.