Texas Hill Country is where President Lyndon Johnson grew up. And the Hill Country has gone all out to honor its native son. You can (and we did) visit his birthplace, the home in Johnson City where he grew up, and the LBJ ranch, aka "Texas White House." The LBJ library and museum is located in Austin at the University of Texas. We plan to visit the library when we make it to Austin later this month.
I have found that, in general, my visits to the various presidential sites and museums have left me with more admiration for each of the presidents. Learning more about their backgrounds and their personalities has generally helped me to go beyond the general impressions that I had of these men based on my perceptions and memories of their presidencies. But not so with Johnson. I came away with an intense dislike for him. He really was a jerk!
Completely putting aside the fact that he was the father of the modern welfare state and the architect of the senseless buildup of the Vietnam war, this man was just plain rude. He used to get up into people's faces when he was talking to them, standing way too close and even touching noses with them. And this wasn't because he was mad. He did it because he wanted to see how the other person reacted and use this to judge their character. He used to steal food off the plates of his dinner guests when they weren't looking. And he often invited people that he wanted something from to the ranch for a night or two. He would send a car or his plane to pick them up so that they were, literally, his prisoner. He would then wake them up at 3:00 am to discuss whatever it was that he wanted from them, and stall them and put them off when they tried to leave.
The ranch itself is quite lovely...everything you'd picture a Texas ranch to be. The Pedernales river runs right through the property. The park service still runs it as a working ranch, selling beef from a herd that is descended from Johnson's own stock. This goat kept trying to eat Rick's shoelaces.
His home was relatively modest.
But he spent at least 25% of his time in office at the "Texas White House", so it had to be modified, at taxpayer expense, to allow him to do the job. He had a short runway installed when he was vice-president, but it wasn't long enough to accommodate big planes. He used to fly home in this smaller plane which he joking called "Airforce 1/2."
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