Former President Jimmy Carter will play softball this weekend during the annual Plains Peanut Festival, an event in his hometown that honors the crop he once cultivated, one that is still an economic mainstay of rural south Georgia.
THE PEANUT CELEBRATION comes amid the start of the fall festival season in Georgia. From now through November, dozens of weekend events will pay homage to the things small town farmers hold sacred — peanuts and pumpkins, apples, cotton and honey.
InsertArt(2025225)“It goes back to since we’ve been hunters and gatherers,” said Doug Bachtel, a rural sociologist at the University of Georgia.
Some festivals honor crops. Others focus on mountain life, American Indians and the Confederacy. Others pay homage to critters that have helped mankind, such as honey bees and mules.
Although Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his humanitarian and human rights work, he still is remembered as a peanut farmer from Plains, a town of 700 that has become an icon of rural Americana.
“He’s a good spokesman and figurehead for our industry,” said Don Koehler, executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission, a sponsor of the Plains festival. “He’s well thought of by the American public and it’s the American public that consumes our peanuts.”
Terri Joyner, coordinator of Plains’ two-day event, said the town is expecting 4,000 to 5,000 people. Children can compete in a creative peanut butter sandwich contest and a peddle-powered tractor pull. Visitors can take a short ride on an excursion train to Archery.
On Sunday, Carter and his Secret Service bodyguards are scheduled to play softball against a team made up of alumni from his old high school.
Most of the festivals feature arts and crafts and food, such as the barbecue served by vendors at Vienna’s Big Pig Jig, which runs from Oct. 23-25.
This will be the final weekend of the Apple Pickin’ Jubilee in Elijay. There will also be the Riverfest Arts and Crafts Festival in Canton.
The six-day Honey Bee Festival opens Tuesday in Hahira, north of Valdosta, then there’s the Mule Festival in Guysie, near Alma, on Oct. 5-6.
On Oct. 4, the nine-day Georgia National Fair opens in Perry, celebrating the state’s rural heritage with food, rides, concerts, a circus and fireworks. Another large farm show, the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, runs from Oct. 15-17 in Moultrie.
In between there’s the Andersonville Historic Fair on Oct. 5-6, the Georgia Mountain Fall Festival in Hiawassee on Oct. 11-20, Prater’s Mill Country Fair in Varnell on Oct. 12-13, the Pumpkin Fest at Pettit Creek Farms near Cartersville and the Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay on two weekends, Oct. 12-13 and 19-20.
Seminole County, in extreme southwestern Georgia, holds its Harvest Festival on Oct. 18-19.
Bachtel said he believes other communities are hosting festivals.
“They occur all over the place — big cities and small towns,” he said. “They’re particularly evident in rural areas because a lot of them revolve around agriculture or natural resources — a crop or a flower.”
Bachtel said festivals are a good way for communities to attract visitors, who buy things, eat in local restaurants and sometimes spend the night.
“Fall is a unique time in the South,” he said. “It cools off a little. It’s easier to walk around and view the wares. It goes back to our humanness and the desire to socialize. In a way, some of these festivals are an excuse to get together and have a party.”© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
