Here we are more than a year away from the national presidential election but hopeful candidates have been stumping for months – and the media, print and electronic  are closely reporting their every move. Political pundits are having a field day that will be more intense in the next 14 months.
Will any of these office seekers emerge as the leading candidate of their political party? How many more will come forth to announce for office? We won’t know until next summer after the Republicans and Democrats name their respective nominee.
I love politics. I became interested when we lived in Athens and we diligently campaigned for a friend seeking a seat on the Athens City Council. It was a sweet victory. I even did a radio spot – albeit reluctantly. My southern accent is so pronounced I didn’t want to sound like a hillbilly but the station engineers assured me they could adjust my voice. They were successful.
All of this to say, besides a presidential election next year, state and local elections are up for grabs this fall and again next year and every candidate will vie for our vote, hoping to become the victor by a landslide promoting themselves through various media from radio and television commercials, personal appearances and debates, buttons and posters, billboards and postcards, and, yes, campaign yard signs.
When did campaign signs planted in a highly visible place become popular? I have no idea. I think the practice just sort of evolved and grew.
Last year as the weeks grew closer to the fall general election, scores of candidate’s yard signs sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain. They marched down the right-of-way of major highways and rural bi-ways; they were posted on trees, fence posts, telephone poles and grassy green lawns in the residential areas. Literally, anything that would hold a nail was a target. While my garden roses died, the yard signs proliferated and popped up overnight.
Because our house is on the corner of a busy street and our lawn is emerald green, thanks to Billy and Kitten Carter, it forms the perfect backdrop and location for campaign signs. We like to support the political candidate we believe is the best person for the job although our opinion did draw a couple of negative comments that ran off my back, having received undesirable remarks before. Anyone who has been in the newspaper business has.
But now we can’t wait to erect a yard sign that has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with showing our support of former President Jimmy Carter who is waging his biggest campaign ever – a successful outcome of the ongoing treatment for melanoma cancer. We’re heading to Plains as fast as Miss MINI can travel to purchase a green and black “Carter for Cancer Survivor” signs: Besides a part of the proceeds go toward a good cause, the Phoebe Cancer Crisis Fund, an organization that provides assistance to cancer patients in need.
With the consent of the former president, the nonprofit group, Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, are offering the signs for $25 each and they are available at the Plains Historic Inn located on Main Street in Plains. Heading to Plains;  come ride with me.
Out and About: It’s fall y’all – not officially, but Labor Day has come and gone, mornings are cooler and it’s Time for Some Football. Dr. Lou Riccardi, faithful UGA supporter, was among the UGA supporters watch the Dawgs big win over Louisiana Monroe in Sanford Stadium last Saturday. “It was a good start for Georgia football and a good game with new quarterback Greyson Lambert of Jesup calling the plays – he did a good job,” said Riccardi, who was accompanied by his wife, Candy Riccardi, and their daughter Kara and her husband Dr. Donnie McMickle and four children of Macon. Also cheering the Dawgs were John and Gaye Hayes and daughters Sydney and Lauren Hayes, Dr. George and Bobbie Bagley, Mary Marshall and family, Charles and Becky Pryor, and Jimmy Whaley and his fiancée Morgan Basone, Lee Pinnell and children, Sam and Shaw; lunching recently at Sweet Georgia Bakery were Sissy Jarrell and son Robert Jarrell of Lake Blackshear, as were Kelli Kinslow and daughter Katie Hendricks; visiting Earl and Beth Williams Labor Day weekend were their son Saylor Williams and his wife Rhonda of Columbus, their daughter Sage Addison, Steve Merwin and Owen Riggins of Valdosta; Bill and Emily Knox of Denver, Colorado, spent the weekend with her aunt Sally Markette and cousins John and Beth Fowler and Anne Markette who was here from Atlanta; David and Elizabeth Kuipers and sons hosted his parents Larry and Nancy Kuipers of Grand Rapids, Michigan; nine-month-old Jonathan Ragan Ritter of Valdosta visited his grandparents, Beth and Alan Ragan and aunt Ansley Ragan Labor Day weekend while his parents Amanda and Tony Ritter traveled to Athens for the UGA game; Charles Kinnamon, a student at North Georgia College, Dahlonega, visited his parents, Lee and Karen Kinnamon and grandmother Barbara Kinnamon; former resident Clive Rainey of Guatemala visiting friends; Debbie Nessarmar had a mini reunion in Jacksonville, Florida, with cousin, Steve Smith, and family of New Jersey and also enjoyed biking on the east coast; Andrea and Keith Pinckard and son, Aaron, visited her sister, Golda Atkins and husband Jay Atkins in Panama City, Fla.; big happy birthday wishes to Bernard Womack, Henry Crisp, Ross Chambliss, Bobby McCrary, Mark Minick and Emily Ballard; Mark and Nancy Hayes are home from a Mediterranean cruise and visits to Greece and Italy; Chet and Mary Anne Crowley spent a week in San Francisco; and Casey and Jami Shivers and daughters Jeanna Kate and Clara Grace, hosted a Labor Day weekend “stay vacay” of swimming, boating, fishing and camping at their Pond House with friends, Chris and Katie Hagerson and Mitchell and Jennifer Smith and their children.

Leila S. Case lives in Ameicus.