“Catch the wild fishes that float through the stream
Time passes slowly when you’re lost in a dream.”
–Bob Dylan
You don’t need fishing expertise to enjoy Jimmy Carter: Rivers & Dreams. Dr. Carlton Hicks and St. Simons Island native Jim Barger Jr. (owner of Righton Books) co-wrote this brilliant and beautiful book where the storytelling emits a Zen calmness, like morning fog hovering over Christmas Creek. Rivers & Dreams casts a mood resembling Gregg Allman’s album Laid Back. What’s more laid back than fishing? No doubt, the 39th President of the United States loved to cast a line.
In April 2023, President Carter wrote in the Foreword to Rivers & Dreams: “We started fly fishing together in Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania, when I was in the White House and continued to go annually. Along with Carlton and a few ‘fishing buddies’ we fished around the world. I first met Carlton’s co-author, Jim Barger Jr., when Jim was a little boy. We reconnected when Carlton and Jim visited with us in Plains.”
Dr. Hicks met Jimmy Carter in 1966. Carter and his wife Rosalynn often visited Georgia’s St. Simons Island where Dr. Hicks worked as an optometrist. Hicks served as Carter’s campaign chairman in Glynn County during Carter’s early political days. Fishing operates as the vehicle for countless stories that illuminate Jimmy Carter’s peaceful character.
Hicks described his friendship with President Carter: “Ted Turner has been close friends with Jimmy Carter for a very long time. If I’m one of President Carter’s oldest living friends, I’d say that Turner would be the second oldest. Maybe Bob Dylan or Willie Nelson have been friends with him as long as Ted has, but I’m not sure. I know that all three met Jimmy Carter after he became governor of Georgia. While I helped him through two hard-fought gubernatorial campaigns to get him there.” Evidencing their close relationship and trust, in April 1977, President Carter asked Dr. Hicks to take King Hussein of Jordan fishing on St. Simons Island.
Barger, an outdoorsman of the highest order, elucidated on Rivers & Dreams’ style and tone: “Although this book covers a lot of history, it’s not a history book. And while it frequently discusses politics, it’s not a political book. It’s a fishing book. Plain and simple.” Barger elaborated, “Each chapter of the book begins with a description of Carlton’s candid memories with the Carters as he related them to me. The chapters also share Carlton’s various memories of campaigning for the Carters, the Carter presidency and the post-presidency.”
Fishing served as a therapeutic lifestyle where out on the water Carter contemplated consequential political issues such as the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords, signing the Endangered American Wilderness Act, creating thirty-nine new national parks, the Iran hostage crisis, growing Habitat for Humanity and Carter’s constant fight to end racial discrimination.
As a St. Simons Island native myself, some of this writer’s favorite stories from Rivers & Dreams involve coastal Georgia history and culture on the barrier islands. Your humble scribe feels honored by a reference in this inimitable book’s Notes & Selected Bibliography citing “Long Gone Gonzo: The Friendship of President Jimmy Carter & Hunter S. Thompson”. This soulful book’s reverence for Nature contends with the botanist, William Bartram.
Rivers & Dreams chapter titles include Spruce Creek, Golden Isles, Rocky Mountains, Argentina, Venezuela, Honduras, Red Hills, Blue Ridge Mountains, Mongolia, Russia, Alaska and Yucatan where fishing adventures involving Carter and Hicks flash across the page like watching Super 8 home-movies. Barger wrote, “Jimmy Carter turned ninety years old the year that Rosalynn and he traveled with Dr. Hicks and their other fishing buddies to fish the Ponoi River in Russia.” Carter’s last fishing trip happened in the Yucatan when he was ninety-three.
For hardcore anglers, Rivers & Dreams provides expert insight to rods, reels, hooks, lures, bait, Willy Harris boats, George Harvey, the Quill Gordon and the Crazy Charlie. The art of fly fishing is revealed in fascinating detail. Dr. Hicks wrote: “The greatest achievement in all fly fishing is to catch the ‘grand slam’, which consists of catching a bonefish, a tarpon, and a permit, all on the fly–and for the purists, all in the same day.”
Rivers & Dreams captures the true spirit of President Jimmy Carter. Let’s go fishing…
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