Archive for May 20th, 2011

TPW TV: Legacy of LBJ

Friday, May 20th, 2011

This is Passport to Texas

Growing up, President Lyndon Baines Johnson felt the pinch of rural poverty, which may be why the Sauer Beckmann Living History Farm exists inside the LBJ State historic Site. TPW TV Producer, Don Cash, tells us about a segment airing this month called LBJ’s Hill Country Legacy.

It’s not really so much about Lyndon Johnson as president, but it’s really more about how he grew up in this part of Texas. A simple life on a farm, and how maybe that affected what he did as president later in his life.

You really can see why he felt the public would gain the sense of compassion for history, and how it can shape a person.

The Sauer Beckmann Living History Farm is an actual working farm. And you’ve got volunteers and employees dressed in period costume—they’re milking cows, they’re making sausage—they’re doing everything as it would have happened in the early 1900s.

It was one of the ideas of LBJ to actually have this happen—the concept of people realizing what life was like without electricity and running water. And he said, ‘People aren’t going to know that if we don’t somehow preserve that.’

It’s a great chance for people to go see how hard life was and how easy we have it today.

Thanks, Don.

The show airs the week of May 21.

That’s our show for today…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.