Carter Slept Here Too

The White House staff had already set up an office in the laundry room, and the telephone company had installed special phones. Over the barn door a red, white and blue banner announced MARYWOOD FARMS WELCOMES PRESIDENT CARTER.

At 10 p.m. last Friday, Jimmy Carter arrived at the 1,600-acre farm in Indianola, Iowa, 16 miles outside Des Moines, to spend the night as a guest of Farmer Woodrow Wilson Diehl and his wife Mary, It was the President's second overnight visit with an American family--and the Diehls' second visit from a President. In 1966 Lyndon Johnson stopped by for a few hours to look over Marywood, one of Iowa's showcase farms, on his way to a Democratic fund raiser in Des Moines.

Fatigued by his trip, Carter chatted with the Diehls, their son Ted, 41, and his family. After a nightcap--a glass of buttermilk--in the kitchen, the President retired to the Diehls' bright turquoise master bedroom. His hosts bunked in a guest room. Then at 6 a.m. Woody Diehl knocked on his guest's door. Said he: "Mr. President, there's something I forgot to tell you last night. The knobs on the shower are reversed. Hot's cold and cold's hot."

Last summer Woody Diehl spent a lot of time in front of the picture window in the spacious living room of his wood and brick ranch house staring out at acres of corn stunted by drought. When the Diehls and eight other local farm families met with Carter next morning over coffee and rolls baked by a neighbor, the costly effects of central Iowa's drought were on all their minds. The group also discussed federal disaster assistance for farmers--Diehl himself will be eligible for payments this year--and the Administration's proposed feed-grains set-aside program.

During the hour-long kaffeeklatsch, the President sat on the arm of the living room couch, and at one point invited Diehl, who was chairman of Iowa Farmers for Carter in the 1976 campaign, to stop by the White House to talk some more. Carter also chatted with Mary Diehl about her hobby of collecting arrowheads, and accepted a big hug from her granddaughter Wendy, 11. For Woody Diehl, the occasion was "beautiful." Said he after Carter's departure: "He's a farmer. He understood exactly what we meant."

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