LBJ's Crib

This is the house where LBJ lived as a boy, from age 5 until he was married about 20 years later. It's in Johnson City in the Hill Country. I toured the house with a nice lady who was reading a thick book about LBJ when I arrived. It was a regularly scheduled tour but I was the only one there, so we discussed him in some depth. LBJ came from my parents' generation...he was born in 1908, my folks in '11 and '18, so it was very impressive that his mother was a college graduate. His father was not, but educated himself and served several terms in the Texas lege, and one of his grandparents was also in politics. LBJ was immersed in the bidness from an early age...by the time he was a teenager he was accompanying his dad to the lege. For his time and place, he had a fairly comfortable upbringing...his house was one of the first around to have a crystal radio and a bathtub, though it didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity, but he came of age in the depression and had some hard times. My tour guide opined that this was a factor in his later pursuit of education legislation, rural electrification, civil rights, and other social developments. Like many ranchers, who need to keep their land productive to keep it profitable, LBJ was also environmentally conscious, and presided over environmental legislation to enhance clean air and water. Medicare was developed during his presidency.

LBJ's domestic successes have been overshadowed and his legacy has of course been tarnished considerably by the Vietnam War, which was the first war the US indisputably lost, and divided the nation on his watch. Sound familiar? The bottom line is that Americans, no matter what their political persuasion is, don't like fighting wars where lives and money are expended with no positive result. Who does?