The LBJ Museum has an exhibit called, Power To The People. It opened in September on Free Museum Day and will continue until May 28. Power To The People is about rural electrification in Texas and of President Johnson’s efforts to bring electrical power lines to rural Texas through the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in the 1930s.
Ironically, although people in rural areas did not have electricity before the REA, many did have telephones, that they used not only for communication but also for entertainment. Some listened to concerts over the telephone and some listened to their neighbors’ conversations, because they had telephone party lines, the forerunners of today’s reality shows and computer forums. However, the electrical power lines disrupted these early magneto telephones.
After the REA finished installing the power lines, it then started another program for installing telephones that were compatible with electric power lines, and it also began to install private telephone lines which led to the demise of the party line.
Still, this is an interesting exhibit even if it doesn’t tell the whole story. The exhibit recounts how some women burned off their fingers accidentally while heating heavy irons on wood-burning stoves for ironing clothing before electricity and electric irons were available. However, the exhibit omits the fact that early electrical irons with their exposed wires were often as dangerous if not more so than earlier irons. Talk about extreme ironing!
My grand aunt lost her fingers to an early electric iron. She was struck by lightening while ironing during a thunder storm. Her fingers were left stubs. Her fiancé , an up-and-coming minister, called off their engagement after the accident, and she returned home to keep house for her bachelor farmer brothers. Despite having stubs for fingers, she could perform most household chores.
As I wandered through the exhibit, I heard an older woman’s voice narrating in the movie viewing rooms. I wondered who it was, and it was not until I looked more closely at my program that I realized that it was Mrs Johnson herself narrating. Mrs. Johnson now in her 90s is blind due to macular degeneration. I did not see Mrs. Johnson on my visit, but I did see a wonderful large inter-generational photograph mural of her family which included her children and grandchildren.
Speaking of families, it was only fitting that the Johnny Gimble band, a family western swing band which includes three generations of musicians–Johnny, Dick, and Emily played and sang at at the LBJ museum open house.
Johnny Gimble cuts a dashing figure in his western attire, boots, and inlaid belt
His son, Dick, and granddaughter, Emily, dressed in black western shirts joined him on stage. They played to the BBQ eating crowd gathered in the tents in front of the LBJ museum.
