Finally, A Three Hour Drive To Our Granddaughter, Marisa

A Young LBJ

The Great Society

Sitting in the last Hampton Inn breakfast nook for a while, with a bunch of businessmen, a couple who seem to be from Japan, at least they speak Japanese with each other.  It's 6:30 as I begin writing this and we are in College Station, TX, home of Texas A & M University and The George Bush Sr. Library.  We will see it this morning, have a tour organized by David, our neighbor in Chautauqua who is CEO of the George Bush Library Foundation.  It's now 7:30 and the breakfast area is packed, a result of the SMU swim team, in town for a swim meet.  Well. it just emptied out as the coach came by and said let's go and off the entire team went.

LBJ Library

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the University Of Texas in Austin.  We had a relaxing morning, of coffee and packing, leaving for the campus around 10:15.  Our first stop was at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, on the east end of the campus.  It's more than a library, also a research center and two schools, one of Public Affairs, the other of U.S. History.  When we entered, we ended up talking with two of the docents, both obviously 'huge' LBJ fans, great admirers of what he accomplished in the making of the Great Society.  Obviously, 'greatly' upset at what was happening to all his programs in this past year.  Interesting. 

Grand Hall Of Archives

We knew some of the history of LBJ, having read about him and recently seen a movie about him with Brian Cranston called ALL THE WAY.  But we were bowled over at all the accomplishments of his tenure as President.  Just about every government program or law that we have come to think of as part of our lives as Americans were signed by LBJ.  To name just a few: Medicare, Medicaid, The Civil Rights Acts of 1965 and 1968, Aid To Education Acts, funding National Endowment For the Humanities, NPR, PBS, Park System, Food Stamp, Headstart, Upward Bound, Work Study, Immigration Act of 1965 (allowing non Europeans to immigrate),  and Apollo 8.  I could go on and on, He also appointed the first African American to the Supreme Court (Thurgood Marshall).  And almost all of the above are under attack by Trump and the current administration.

Our Favorite Photo Of LBJ, Howling With His Hound

We both were almost brought to tears thinking about this as we watched videos of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's, how amazing it was that Johnson empathized with both African Americans and Mexican American's.  And even though he was from the South, he fought for justice for everyone, to eliminate poverty for all.  He knew passing these laws like the Civil Right Act of 1965 would cost the Democratic Party the Southern White Vote but it was 'the right thing to do.  It led to a Trump.  We could have spent hours but ended up just spending two.  He was a Giant.  I would not have wanted to cross him, to have stood next to him and said NO.  He did not mind getting in your face, either charming or cajoling or threatening if necessary, refusing to take No for an answer.  Our two-hour visit helped us to see the greatness of what the United States could be and contrasted with the shallowness, meanness, and intolerance of what it may become.  No more politics, I promise.

A Believer In The Good Government Could Do

We finished our visit around noon and then walked down the main corridor of the Texas Campus, from the east end to the west, about a mile of huge buildings, courtyards, filled with tables, where students could eat, study or have a coffee.  It was hot and humid, perhaps in the 80's, so we tried to stay under the canopy of trees. 

University Of Texas Tower, 307 Feet Tall, Finished in 1937

Main Campus Building

We walked past the infamous Texas Tower, where the first mass shooting of Americans took place on August 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman climbed the tower and killed 14 people, wounded 31 in two hours of mayhem.  I saw no memorial or mention of this event.  We ended up at the Texas CoOp, just off the west side of the campus, bought a tee shirt for me and a hat for Evie.  And behind the CoOp was a series of food trucks, so we had lunch there, three tacos for three bucks if we paid with Apple Pay, the cheapest lunch of our trip. 

We left for College Station around 2:15 and it was a pleasant three-hour drive through mostly green and flat farm and grazing lands, no oil wells, just country, with vistas vast and inspiring, like something out of the movie GIANT.  Our Hampton Inn is just beyond the large Texas A & M campus, but then everything is large in Texas.  We watched some TV and I took another shower before going to dinner around 6:30.  We went to a Greek Restuarant called Cafe Eccell, about a quarter of a mile from our hotel so we walked.  When we walked in it was fairly empty and we found a seat at the bar.  But by the time we left, about 7:45, two or three large groups of what looked like sorority girls came in and the bar and bar room were packed.  I had a gyro with slices of leg of lamb and Evie had a tasty but rich tomato basil soup and a green salad.  Both were fine but we are ready for some 'home cooking'.

Food Trucks

We passed a Sonic on the way back to our hotel and we had to stop and get hot fudge sundaes to finish off the day.  We took them back to our room, watched the endless news about Al Franken, another sexual harasser before we both fell asleep around 9:30 or 10:00.