Christmas in Texas and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library

It was a short but pleasant 107-miles through rural Texas countryside to our next destination at Berry Springs RV Park in Georgetown today. This is where we would stay for the next week, celebrating Christmas with family that we had not met before, my mother's cousin and his wife, and their daughter and her family. When they heard we would be passing through around the holidays, they insisted we spend the holidays with them and welcomed us warmly. It was an offer we simply could not pass up to spend Christmas with family in Texas!
Our route took us along Routes 190/6 and 190/79 towards Milano then along the FM roads (FM908, FM486 and FM1331), before connecting to TX95 and TX29 to Georgetown.  
These lesser FM roads through Texas Hill Country, are really good and the terrain mostly flat. 


The morning was overcast and often drippy as we passed ranches, farms, fields with hay bales and fields with huge rectangular cotton bales. The countryside is pretty with its numerous oaks and junipers.
We arrived close to 2PM, set up, had a cup of tea and went off to visit my relatives in Georgetown. 

Georgetown is close to Austin, so we spent one day at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum while in the area. We wandered through the galleries and exhibits, getting a concise overview of LBJ's years in office during the turbulent 1960's, a period of cultural revolution and change which accompanied the escalating war in Vietnam. Propelled from Vice-President to President after Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, President Johnson certainly had his share of challenges and issues while in office until 1969. 

On the home front, Johnson, a Democrat who had been a strong supporter of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” during the 1930s, continued the era of liberalism with his “Great Society” legislative agenda.  He successfully pursued one of Kennedy’s primary goals of implementing a significant tax cut, which he negotiated in exchange for a budget cut.  Tax revenues actually increased and bolstered the economy, and unemployment dropped to low levels.  The strong economy helped support the Great Society programs Johnson promoted.

Johnson  grew up in Texas Hill Country where he witnessed first-hand the effect of rural poverty and lack of education, and is remembered best for his creation of government programs that could benefit ordinary people.  In many respects, he was the president who could be considered a father figure and benefactor to all Americans, making sure his citizens were taken care of fairly and protected, and that no one was overlooked or forgotten. Dozens of his bills remain today providing social benefits for all: Medicare, Medicaid, equal voting rights, Head Start, seat belts, PBS, endowment for the arts, clean air, national park expansions, and his "War on Poverty" to name just a few. Johnson also promoted passage of the Immigration Act which eliminated national origins quotas in place since the 1920s resulting in a doubling of the rate of immigrant inflow.  This may have positively influenced our own immigration process just 8 years later.  

As you enter the Library, this 3-D list of Johnson's legislation greets you together with a display of dozens of pens he used to sign each bill. He took to heart the credo of equality for all and acted on it. 

these pens, resembling piano keys, feature below the display above - Johnson certainly was a prolific signer of legislation

Of particular interest to me were the displays of the cultural highlights of the 60's and 70's in America. Although we grew up overseas during that era and were perhaps more influenced by the music and fashion of Britain, I could relate to and recognize many of the same icons of the 60's. It was also interesting to see what my generation was exposed to in the US as I was growing up in South Africa.     

the dress and boots could have been mine...the books, the Frisbee and Spirograph are American
and the Playboy magazine is definitely one banned in South Africa! 

Beatlemania was a large influence in SA

the dress with lace jabot could have been mine, the sandals too; the movie Doctor Zhivago, Barbara
Streisand and Donovan were popular in SA too

 flower power and peace signs were universal though
pot would not have been

I too had a Battleship game and enjoyed playing, saw the Space Odyssey movie,
 but didn't know it was based on a book, listened to to the landing on the moon on radio
because there was no television in South Africa's apartheid days

Dozens of bills were passed to improve the lives of all American citizens, yet Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests were escalating into more violent confrontations at home, dividing the nation.  At the same time Johnson was also dealing with tense issues on the global political front. Communism, the Cold War, tension in Latin America with Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic, threat of nuclear war, and Israel's Six-Day War took Johnson's' focus away from the domestic programs and his vision to create a Great Society. The world was on the verge of war and annihilation, a feeling and focus I remember well as we debated and discussed the threat of a nuclear war in high school. 

What comes across the most vividly is that Johnson had a particular personality that afforded him a great benefit when it came to negotiating and getting what he wanted. His tall stature, and what is known as The Johnson Staredown worked in his favor, though can also be interpreted as intimidation. He is well remembered for staring his opponents down, face to face, or prodding them in the chest as he loomed large over them, making his point. Obviously he would not take No for an answer, or at least not without making a stand.

Michael experiencing the 36th President's Staredown treatment 

Johnson faced increasing troubles through the mid-sixties with civil rights and anti-war riots.  He achieved passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but as crime rates soared, his popularity declined.  Over half a million more military personnel were sent to Vietnam during his presidency, and he was denounced by antiwar elements.  Due to his decline in popularity Johnson ended his bid for another term as president, and he left office in 1969.
One gallery displayed personal memorabilia belonging to the first family, including Johnson's favorite cowboy boots, a fitting article for this often larger-than-life Texan native.


At the Museum Store, I bought my patch to add to my patch collection. The logo for the paper bag holding the patch is, I think, quite fitting, depicting a tall man with his iconic left-handed signature that signed into law so many bills passed during his term in office. 

more pens used to sign legislation

the windows displaying the Johnson archives
with 45 million documents, photographs, video and audio

In the grand hall below the archives, there is a display of portraits of the presidents and their first ladies which I enjoyed. Of interest to me was seeing how the fashions and hairstyles over the years have changed, particularly for women. 

the Washingtons

the Lincolns

the Wilsons

the Coolidges, during the Flapper era

the Eisenhowers

the Kennedys

the Johnsons

the Reagans

We also enjoyed an exhibit of ambassador Madeleine Albright's pins that she chose to visually convey a particular foreign policy message at her meetings, whether it was her high hopes, determination, impatience or warm wishes. The carefully selected brooches became her diplomatic signature. 
Albright wore this pin with her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov. The explanation is that Vladimir Putin confided to Bill Clinton that Russian diplomats routinely checked to see which brooch Albright was wearing. On the first day of difficult discussions involving nuclear arms, Ivanov looked at her arrow-like pin for the day and inquired, "Is that one of your interceptor missiles?" to which she replied, "Yes, and as you can see, we know how to make them very small. So you'd better be ready to negotiate."

Other brooches were a serpent worn after being called "an unparalleled serpent" by Sadam Hussein:

And this one of Atlas with the world on his shoulders, representing the weight of the world on Albright's shoulders during difficult negotiations:

After leaving the Library and Museum, we drove through downtown Austin, impressed with the city that looked clean and prosperous, with its modern buildings. The Capitol, unlike others we have seen, is not white but coral. 

In the spirit of Christmas, I got a chuckle at this display along one of the roads with its Merry Minion message!

We spent a Merry Christmas with the family, ate far too much and enjoyed our time together. Tomorrow we will be heading further east to Fredericksburg, to return to the Nimitz Museum and also visit the Johnson Ranch which is close by.