Napping with the governor

Jessica Garrison

Today, the people of Newport-Mesa know Earl Craig as the dynamic, caring

pastor of Grace Fellowship Church.

Forty yeas ago, the people in Craig’s hometown of Midland, Texas, knew

him as the playmate of George and Barbara Bush’s younger son, Jeb, who is

now the governor of Florida.

“What a great family,” Craig remembered. “I used to go home and take naps

at their house after first grade.”

Not, he quickly explained, because his own family was dysfunctional, but

because Jeb was his schoolmate, his playmate and his partner in crime

when it came to catching frogs in the park and doing whatever it is that

6-year-old boys like to do with frogs.

Barbara Bush, he said, was a firm believer in afternoon naps. So when

Craig came over to play with Jeb, before any of the fun could begin, she

would make them both lie down and then wake them up with milk and warm

cookies.

Craig recently reported these and other anecdotes of growing up with the

Bushes to a Dallas-based reporter who is writing an authorized biography

of George W. Bush. The book will be published at the height of his bid

for the presidency.

Apparently, George W. was a perfectly delightful older brother -- at

least according to Craig.

The pastor said he has absolutely no memory of any sibling torture or

pranks at the hands of the man-who-would-be-president.

“I wish I did, because that would make a pretty good story now,” he said.

“But I don’t.”

What he does sometimes ponder, especially as the election season begins

to heat up, is how it is possible that a boy he once knew is now the

governor of Florida, and that boy’s older brother has a pretty good shot

at being the next president of the United States.

“I think what it makes me realize is that there are people,

appropriately, who are quite driven to lead,” Craig said. “If they are

good leaders, if they are moral leaders, more power to them. ... They

should be encouraged to pursue the fulfillment of their capabilities in

that regard.”

Though Craig’s life has followed a different path from the Bushes, their

families came from similar backgrounds.

“George Bush was an old oil man,” he said, drawing out his vowel and

transforming his accent to pure west-Texas drawl. “Just like my father

and a bunch of other Easterners who just graduated from Ivy League

schools like Yale, which is where my father went, along with George.

“They had just finished World War II,” remembered Craig, “And they struck

out from New England down to west Texas and got started in the oil

business.”

Midland was, for a while, the oil capital of the country in those heady

days before engineers discovered the magic of offshore oil-drilling.

For some time, Craig thought he would follow his father into the oil

business. He even majored in electrical engineering in college, but then

he became a Christian and decided to follow a different path.

As for Jeb and George W., and their parents Barbara and George, Craig

said his parents have stayed in far better contact with them than he has

-- even traveling to the White House to work on projects for the Bushes.

“I’d love to meet up with them,” he said of his childhood friends. “I’d

love to say hi to Jeb one of these days again.”