Luckenback Texas was only two miles out of our way, so we had to see the place! Waylon Jennings immortalized Luckenback with his song “Back to the Basics of Love”. (https://youtu.be/Qf_HoB6RRKI)This is the classic picture everyone wants from Luckenback Texas.The post office doubles as the general store, and in the back is the bar. In the left corner, you can barely see some guys with instruments. We went back to see what they were doing. Photography of the performers is not allowed, so I can post a picture here, unfortunately.
There were four men with different instruments. One man would play a guitar and sing a country style song. Then the next man would play a tune on his fiddle. The next man would then tell a down-home story, that ended with a funny punchline. Then the last man would play a number on his guitar laying in his lap. It was really cool to experience! It was like stepping back into a different place and time, like maybe the 1920s or 1930s in Appalachia.Luckenback is not quite as fancy as “rustic”.The Dance Hall.This is the stage where some very big stars have performed. Not so much going on in December.A Luckenback Christmas tree……and another.Luckenback’s history.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s boyhood home in Johnson City. Due to covid (Still!) the house is not open for public tours.One side of the house.The back side of the house.I could see one bedroom through a window.Also the kitchen.LBJ was a member of this First Christian Church in Johnson City.The Junction School. LBJ first attended this school as four-year-old! This was his first formal education. The school held seven grades in one room!This is a replica of LBJ’s birthplace, on the site of the actual house.Barn behind the birth house.Graves of First Lady Claudia Taylor Johnson and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.This is a view of the Johnson Ranch.Hereford cattle on the Johnson Ranch.To this day, the Johnson Ranch does not buy any cattle. These are purebred “Johnson Ranch” Hereford cattle. LBJ’s private runway on the ranch.Air Force “One Half”. When LBJ was president, Air Force One was too big to land on his ranch, so it would land in Austin or San Antonio, then he would take this smaller jet to his ranch. This is a Lockheed JetStar VC-140.LBJ was well known for giving toys and gifts to children of his staff and guests. Most of the gifts he gave had the presidential seal and LBJ’s signature on them. I still have that Geronimo figure in its original box (without the LBJ seal and signature)!LBJ gave his daughter Luci this 1965 Corvette on June 18, 1965, two weeks before her 18th birthday.This is the home on the LBJ Ranch. While LBJ was president, this was called the “Texas White House”. It is currently closed as structural repairs are being done.These are purebred Longhorn cattle. These are located in the LBJ State Par, which is not part of the LBJ Ranch.
Dinner at Fleming’s.This is the UT Tower on the campus of the University of Texas. From this tower a shooter named Charles Whitman murdered 14 people and injured 31 more, in August 1966. This was one of the worst mass murders in US history and the first to unfold on live TV.George Washington statue across the street from the UT tower.The Littlefield Home, built in 1894 for George Littlefield, who served as a regent for the University of Texas during the 1910s, contributing money for many of the early buildings on the UT campus. Prior to arriving in Austin in 1883, Littlefield served with Terry’s Texas Rangers in the Civil War, and then he bought up many ranches in New Mexico and the Texas panhandle. Darrell K. Royal, Texas Memorial Stadium.Statue of Bevo, the UT Longhorns’ mascot.Julius Whittmer was the first black football player to earn a 4-year football scholarship, and to earn letters in football. He played from1969-1972. He played on the 1970 UT National Champion team.Ricky Williams and his 1998 Heisman Trophy.1963 National Football Championship trophy. US’s other national championship trophies are also on display here.If you are a University of Texas fan, they have these cool displays for the different sports with individual and team trophies and championships.Downtown Austin skyline. This skyline has changed dramatically since I was here in the 1980s. They are currently building a new tower that will be 78 stories tall, which will be the tallest building in Texas.Fascinated by the “sailboat” building, Block 185. This 35 story tower is occupied by Google.
President Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library & Museum.Johnson was our 36th president, from 1963-1969. He became president upon the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas TX on November 22, 1963. He won his own term in a landslide in 1964.Bust of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.Pretty cool hologram of LBJ.Perhaps the most beautiful display in the museum. This is the collection of LBJ’s presidential records.Also a cool series of sculptures depicting LBJ with the different presidents he met with during his career. First was FDR.LBJ with President Harry S Truman.LBJ with President Dwight Eisenhower.LBJ with President John F. Kennedy.President Lyndon B. Johnson.1960 presidential campaign.Newspapers announce JFK’s assassination in 1963.LBJ was sworn into office as president aboard Air Force One returning to Washington DC with the slain president’s body on board. JFK’s wife Jacqueline Kennedy attended the swearing in.American pop culture in the 1960s. I still have that exact version of Battleship!Legos from the 1960s.LBJ was a very energetic president, working on quite a few programs. He greatly enlarged the federal government with many of these programs. The Vietnam War was the number one foreign policy issue of the 1960s. This was a complicated time, as for the first time, a war was shown on TVs in near live time. The war became very unpopular, especially as leftist media such as Walter Cronkite lied about our military successes. I will be happy to discuss in more detail for anyone who wants to.LBJ was stuck with bad options in Vietnam.The Six Day War was a devastating victory for Israel against Egypt, Syria and Jordan in June 1967.Thsi is a rock from the moon.After a close primary early in the 1968 campaign season, LBJ chose not to run for reelection in 1968.LBJ was a big man (about 6’3″), and he used his size to intimidate people, up close and personal. He had a long career in Congress, and with all the relationships he had built over the years he was able to get quite a few laws passed.LBJ’s Oval Office. This is about an 80% size replica.LBJ’s presidential limo.LBJ presidential china.There was a special section for First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson.Some of the dresses Lady Bird wore as First Lady.Lady Bird Johnson’s office.This is a picture of President and First Lady Johnson bidding farewell to many of his supporters as he left office in 1969. An interesting note about this picture is that future president George H. W. Bush is also there to wish LBJ well. Bush is at about 2 o’clock in the picture, not far from the right edge. Can you see him?
I have been to the Texas State Capitol several times in the 1980s, but I didn’t really go all through the capitol, Of course, there must be scaffolding to mar my picture!The building is constructed of pink granite from Texas.The sculptures on the grounds were very well done, great detail and relief.Confederate memorialBattles listed, including Fredericksburg.Other battles listed, including Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse.Honoring Spanish Tejanos. Spaniards were in Texas as early as 1519.Monument to the Heroes of the Alamo.Looking up in the rotunda.Between the points of the star are letters spelling TEXAS.Surrender of Santa Ana in 1836, creating the independent Republic of Texas.David CrockettPresident George W. Bush, as Governor of Texas.Governor John Connally was riding with President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 when the president was assassinated. Connally was hit in the arm.House chamber, dressed for Christmas.House Christmas tree.Senate chamber, dressed for Christmas.Senate Christmas tree.The lights spell out TEXAS.Dawn at the Alamo – fall of the Alamo – “The Moral Victory” by H.A. McArdle.The Battle of San Jacinto – “Retributive Justice”, by H.A. McArdle.President Lyndon B. Johnson.Governor’s Public Reception Room. Governor Abbott was not in when we visited.“The Spirit of Texas”, by Gerald Harvey Jones, bronze.Chandelier in the reception room.“Mexican Huts, San Antonio”, 1881, by Edward Grenet.Cool doorknobs. Only in Texas.Cool hinges, only in Texas!David Crockett.Sam Houston.
