Ever Ready: Austin, Texas Faves

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Austin, Texas Faves

"We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors." by LBJ

Located on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas, the LBJ Library is one of thirteen presidential libraries in the United States. This was the second presidential library I have visited. Several years ago when I was in Boston went to JFK Library.
There are similarities in both in terms of walking around looking at presidential memorabilia in chronological order, memorabilia and trivia of the time period

and the fact both are educational experiences.

When one walks up the colossal staircase into the Great Hall of the library, there is a magnificent photoengraved mural from photos of LBJ with prior presidents, including Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Above the mural you see, housed behind brilliant glass, four floors of archives that contain more than 45 million pages of documents from the Johnson administration. Those archives are not available to visitors.

You can, however, browse the interactive video exhibits on the north side of the Great Hall, or gaze at the presidential portraits of every U.S. President and First Lady from Washington to Obama.

Long before Nixon and the Watergate tapes, LBJ recorded phone calls. You can listen to these phone calls through a receiver of the phone at the time. The recordings are remarkably good, and intimate. You’ll get the feeling of eavesdropping on an extension though the conversation happened more than fifty years ago.

Of the six presidents who secretly taped in the White House, President Johnson was the only president who did so for the duration of his presidency. Johnson had first started recording while vice president, but the first tape on which Johnson is heard as president was recorded aboard Air Force One en route from Dallas to Washington, DC, on 22 November 1963, just hours after JFK’s assassination. With the slain president’s body on board, the newly sworn-in President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, called John Kennedy’s mother, Mrs. Rose Kennedy, to offer their condolences. The final recording in the Johnson tapes collection was recorded on 2 January 1969. That Johnson treated the telephone as an essential tool of governing was well known to those who knew him
The following are some of my favorite photos.

Replica of Oval Office

Wildflower pattern China designed by Lady Bird

Lyndon gave his wife a brownie camera in the late 30's. For over 30 years her camera lens recorded their political and family experiences as well as using her Bell and Howell 16 mm movie camera .

Lastly, enjoyed all the candid family photos and learning more about the Johnson administration and his role in the civil rights movement.

Like all big cities there are lists of the top things to do when visiting a certain area. Certainly LBJ Museum and Library are right at the top but the 1.5 million bat sighting at sunset is an event not to be overlooked and comes in on most lists as the top 5 things to see.

According to experts, Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. Approximately 1.5 million bats have made the Congress Avenue Bridge their home. The bats settled here after a renovation of the bridge in 1980 created crevices that were perfect for bats to take refuge in against predators. Every spring the Mexican free tailed bats migrate north to the bridge to give birth and raise their offspring. Come summer time, the bats can be seen each evening at dusk as they emerge for their nightly excursions to rid the city of pesky insects before heading back to central Mexico in the fall.

And my oh. my crowds do line up on the Congress Street bridge, on their paddle boards, kayaks and boats just waiting for this sighting.

We were in a boat right near the second bridge arch. It was a difficult to capture the frenzy of this moment but my daughter did a pretty good job with her camera.