The Plains, Georgia, farm where Jimmy Carter spent most of his childhood had no indoor electricity or plumbing and relied on wood stoves for heat.
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Carter’s family moved to this farm when he was 4 years old. He helped his father, Earl, raise cotton, corn, peanuts, and sugar cane, all of which they sold alongside other items including coffee and kerosene at a country store near their house.
The National Park Service quotes Carter as saying, “The early years of my life on the farm were full and enjoyable, isolated but not lonely. We always had enough to eat, no economic hardship, but no money to waste. We felt close to nature, close to members of our family, and close to God.”
The former president still lives humbly today. He and his wife, Rosalynn, live in a two-bedroom home in Plains assessed at $167,000, “less than the value of the armored Secret Service vehicles parked outside,” the Washington Post reported in 2018.