...The Hill Country is amazing...it extends in South Central Texas from Austin, the capitol to down to Fredeicksburg about 80 miles south..It is one very huge swath of High hills and huge ranch areas in every direction...when on top of the hills you can see the world!....I can now understand why Lyndon Johnson called it home!....He was born here...we toured his birth home today..saw a video biography of him in the Museum there...and really learned how he really waqs born into poverty...No electicity..no indoor plumbing ..and lots of hard work...He left the site and moved about 15 miles further south to a ranch that his grandparents and parents farmed as tenant farmers... His father had finished about 8th grade...was a very bright man..who could do almost everything...from haircutting to selling real-estate..to trading cattle etc...anything to make money he evidently was a great salesman...and was reuested ultimately to go into politics which he did...and took young Lyndon with him on all his political tours...and evidently "showed him the ropes"....Lyndon was a precocious child, and with his nmother who was a college graduate.and with her insistence was permitted to enter school at age 4.. He apparently was a good student and graduated High School after 11th grade which was a far as school went at that time..His first school was a one room school with students of all grades attending at the same time...It was recollected that when he was required to read it was necessary that he sit on his teacher's lap...He had moved back from town to the farm at age 11 to when he was 15....and did many daily fasrmchores in the early morning before attending school which waqs several miles away....When he was 15 and could find no employment, he and about 4 other boys purchased an old Ford car and left for California to try and make their fortunes...but after 2 years of very menial work he returned to the farm...and worked there..picking cotton etc.....after his father borrowed considerable funds to buy the farm...but unfortunately with drought and other misfortune lost the farm and declared bancruptcy....His mother and father both became depressed..his father turning to alcohol...and dying prematurely...His mother left to live with a daughter...after she had convinced young Lyndon that the only hope for the future for him was to obtain a college degree...and upon her advice enrolled in the local State Teachers College...gained his degree and began teaching school... The rest is history as we shall see i9n my forthcoming book...and gain insight into what motivated him to initiate "The Great Society" after becoming President!...It is truly a heroic story....
As we took a tour on a little bus of all the ranch area..we saw evidence of the recent flood...one of the small bridges we travelled over had been submerged above the railings as we coulsd see the level of debris on the banks of the river...This river traverses directly thru the ranch and is an important reason for it being so important to him....There were several small groups of deer noted as well as Antelopes that Lyndon had imported with an occasional buffalo..and of course, sheep and cattle....we walked thru the ranch home...and then drove directly all aqround the beautiful but somewhat modest appearing ranch house that was the Texan White House that he and LindaBIrd lived in...No tours, however and we noted several young people who evidently were relatives or friends who were using the pool, riding horses or little All-Terrain vehicles for amusement...we saw his various cars and one especially that he enjoyed was a German mabnufactured little convertible that was a car-boat and it was said that he would frighten unwaring guests when taqking them for a ride he would plunge it directly into the lake...scaring the wits out of them!...There is much more to tell..but it must wait.."the best is yet to come"....or "the Rest of the Story" is to be told!.....\
we left then in 90 degree temperature...no rain...sunny skies and returned some 50 miles to the outskirts of Austin...to see the Archival Museum tomorrow on the campus of University of Texas...I understand that he wanted the Museum in Johnson City or Stonewall neaqr the ranch...bot Ladybird was the boss..she insisted on it being located at her Alma Mater!...we shall see tomorrow!...Hang on for the ride...The next morning we fly to Los Angeles!
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