LBJ Boyhood home and Texas White House

Monday, September 24, 2012

Another big day of sightseeing.  We headed out into hill country and arrived at Johnson City where part of the National Historic sight is for our 36^th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

  We watched a movie about his presidency from the assassination of JFK to his signing in and his vision for America.  He started Medicare and Medicaid, Headstart, and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  His vision was the “Great Society” and believed in bringing American’s out of poverty in Appalachia and throughout our country.  He served in difficult times (maybe they all are) including Civil Rights demonstrations, Vietnam War, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, race rioting, Woodstock.  We also watched a movie on Lady Bird Johnson, who is dearly beloved in Texas (apparently much more so than her husband).  She started beautification programs along our highways, getting rid of billboards, the planting of wild flowers.  In his presidency, 34 additional National Parks or sites were added to the National Park Service including Padre Island and Big Bend.  I believe she was behind a lot of that.  She was also a big advocate of a good free education for all.

  At the site in Johnson city you can tour his childhood home where he lived from 5 until he left for Washington to serve as an aide in Congress.  He was the oldest of 5 children, his father a Senator and self taught lawyer, and his mother a college educated woman that was rare in those days.  They both instilled the values in education to their children.  His mother, Rebekah would have her children and neighborhood children gather on the porch and she would teach them about liberal arts such as speech and debate.  She has an unusual photo in her living room that at first look is a human skull but at closer look is a reflection of her in a mirror sitting at a desk.  She had this done to show and teach that first impressions are not always true nor the whole story.  His father Joe made the two oldest children listen to the radio each night and then debate the subjects at the supper table for an hour and than write an essay afterwards.  

Boyhood home, notice the porch where his mom taught the
neighborhood children about debate and speech

LBJ’s grandparents settled in this area and his grandfather was a farmer and cattle driver.  His grandmother had to hide under the porch of her home from raiding Comanches.  LBJ’s parents lost all of their money when Joe had wisely invested in cotton futures until his barn burned with all his cotton in it, so he had to cut hair for a dime a haircut to help feed his family.

We then drove onto Stonewall where there is another visitor center and you can visit the Sauer Beckman Farm which has people in period dress doing the things that were done on the farm from 1900-1918.  The people who lived here were LBJ’s neighbors and one of the descendants was actually a mid-wife who helped in the delivery of LBJ.

  We then did a self driving tour of the actual LBJ Ranch and took a guided tour of the Texas White House.  The ranch is on the Pedernales River and the park service manages 825 acres.  It is still a working form with Hereford Cattle raised there.  You can get out and see the one room school where he started school at age 4, the cemetery where he, Lady Bird and the Johnson family are buried, the house in which he was born, the airstrip where he flew in on “Air Force ½” (They had to leave the 707 in Austin due to the runway length.) You can get out at the show barn where there is a ranch hand to answer questions. 

The Texas White House was like stepping into a late 1960’s house.  The furniture is the same as was there when he lived there and the kitchen is done exactly as it was.  It really is lovely, but a simple house considering he was the President.  He was the first President to have a White House away from Washington and ran 25% of his Presidency from Texas.  He had a telephone by his very ugly chair (LadyBird hated it) in the dining room where he could see 3 TV’s in the living room (remember we only had 3 major stations then).  He would watch the news and if any newscaster said anything bad about him he would get on the phone and call the station and ask them why they were saying those things about him!  Must have made for great family dinner conversation!  He would hold cabinet meetings out on the lawn under a 450 year old live oak.  His office was quite modest with his desk and 2 other desks for staffers.  LadyBird kept a journal of everyday of being the first lady and there is a book with her memoirs.  The ranger also told us that LBJ is the most written about President that we have ever had which really surprised me.  He apparently is not very well liked by other ranchers in the Hill Country.  The ranger said if he wanted to expand his ranch he would try to buy it from the rancher and if he wouldn’t sell, he would take it claiming, eminent domain.  There were several cars of his on display and one of them was a baby blue convertible that was amphibious.  He would drive guests to his ranch and then fake like the brakes were going out in the car and drive it right into the River.  Apparently that is how he decided what kind of stuff future staffers were really made of.   He died of a massive heart attack at the ranch at age 64. We were told that although he did not smoke during his Presidency that he did smoke up to 4 packs a day and that his father, brother and siblings all died at about the same age.  He had a pool at the ranch that he was supposed to swim in but tended to float around the edges instead, maybe partaking in his favorite alcohol, Cutty Sark, scotch.He did love the land and the Hill Country of Texas.  It truly is beautiful here.

Texas White House - unfortunately we could not take pictures inside

 After the ranch we drove into Fredericksburg which was founded by German immigrants, about 25 miles away. It is quite touristy but cute.  We walked around and then stopped in the Fredericksburg Brewery which at 19 years old is the longest running brew pub in Texas.  We had a nice porter and amber and chatted with the bartender about how Texans truly do not appreciate a good beer.