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Show | All Quiet on the Pedernales LBJ’s Texas neighbors are cautious about what they say By AZIZ SHIHAB envelopes you. You are made to feel as if you have wan- dered into a deserted church at midnightor a public library that has “No Talking!”signs on every table. The hush-hush attitude is a paradox because Hill Country is really “Johnsoh Country,” and the several thousand Texans wholive in the shadow of the 15,000-acre LRJ Ranch on the Pedernales River are, as Lady Bird Johnson describes them, “the Johnsons’ home folks.” Furthermore, they are home folks who areinordinately proud of the native son who grew up to be President, and they also admire his loving and loyal family. But instead of being chock- ful of anecdotes about what LBJ and his lady have been doing since they came hometo stay, all they will say, in effect, is “No comment.” They are even reluctant to recall human-interest stories about the Johnsons’early years. Why? “They might get riled at us,” said an old-timer in Hye, three miles from the Johnson ranch. The Rev. Rodney Maeker, pastor of the Lutheran church across the street from the ranch, said that LBJ recently asked him to open a kindergarten in the church for the ranch-hands’ chil- dren, and Reverend Maekerindicated he thought this meant Johnson might help support it. But other than to repeat, “Isn't it wonderful of him to want to do that?” the pastor would say no more for fear he might “misunderstand.” “We've been misquoted in the past when we talked about the Johnsons, and we understand the President doesn’t like that,” added Mrs. Sydney Burg of Stonewall. Dozens of other Johnson neighbors express the same attitude. There is no doubt that most of them would have only favorable things to say, but they worry that he might think what they said was unfavorable. Fluo Klein, a Fredericksburg barber who was LBJ’s classmate in the old Junction School, wrote a story for a local paper recalling some “amusing incidents” about the ex-President. There was nothing unusual or adverse in his recollections, but even so he felt compelled to add at the end: “I would like to state that these incidents are told with the greatest admiration for the exPresident, and are not meant to offend, but to show that Lyndon was very human, and a down-to-earth person.” Stella Gliddon, editor of the Johnson City Record-Courier, is one person willing to talk “a little’ about her “old friends, the Johnsons.” Having discoyered that Lady Bird likes fig preserves, she makes sure that home-made preserves are sent to the Johnson ranch every so often. But after having revealed this information, Mrs. Gliddon, Friends and neighbors welcome former President Johnson home at Austin, Texas At ranch phone, Johnson seems to wonder why Hill Country folks aren't talking. > I you mention the name Lyndon Johnson in the Hill Country of Texas, a strange curtain of silence suddenly too, had second thoughts about whether she should have said anything. “I just hope the Johnsons won't misunder- stand,” she confided. Oddly, there is no evidence to show that LBJ has taken umbrage—or would take umbrage—at stories told about the Johnsons by their neighbors. The constant worry that “he might misunderstand” seems to be based on the reputation the ex-President acquired when he was in the White House. “We kept reading all the time how he had gotten mad atthis assistant or that one because they’d spilled something that he just didn’t want said in public or to strangers,” an elderly Johnson City resident commented. “Maybe he’s notreally that thin-skinned and maybe those news- paper yarns were wrong—but we just don’t want to take any chances,” In many ways, the Hill Country is unchanged from whatit was in the days when Lyndon Johnson was a young man. Folks still sit on the sidewalks to play a gameof checkers at midday in Johnson City. Texans in the town of Hye still wear ten-gallon hats and chew tobacco. You can still get a dish of handchurned peach ice cream in Stonewall, or a windmill repaired nearby, There have been some changes, of course. The local people benefit from Johnsonpostcards, Johnson books, Johnson key chains, and other Johnsonia souvenirs, which are sold in shops, gas stations, restaurants, motels, and even roadside peach stands, Various chambers of commerce emphasize their Johnson links, Fredericksburg is now the “Gateway to the LBJ Ranch,” Blanco is the “Heartland of a Great American,” Johnson City is “Home of the Johnsons,” and Stonewall is the “Birthplace of Lyndon.” Thereis no land for sale anywhere near the LBJ Ranch, and one man who sold a few acres at a sizeable profit not long ago is now sorry he did. He hassaid that the local people are angry at him because they Family Weekly, January 8, 1971 think “LBJ didn’t want any land here sold to outsiders.” Anita Burg, owner of a souvenir shop near the LBJ Ranch, sometimes keeps people in her store longer than usual by saying, “President Johnson may drop in soon to get something.” But the fact is the Johnsons are rarely seen. And neighbors are advised by Secret Service men that they have to make an appoint- ment through LBJ’s office in Austin if they wantto call on him. Recently there was a party in a church hall to honor the Hill Country's peach growers. Mr. Johnson, accompanied by two Secret Service men, dropped in. According to what thelocal paper wrote about it, nobody in the entire Hill Country missed that party. And, to hear them talk, it seems Mr. Johnson spent hours chatting with each one of them. No one was able to recall, however, exactly what Mr. Johnson talked about. One neighbor who can accurately be called an intimate friend of the Johnsons is Father W. W.Schneider, a Catholic priest whose church is across the road from the Johnson home. He displays dozens ofpictures about the Johnsons and talks about them with great fondness in a heavy German accent. Father Schneider visited the Johnsons House, when they lived in the White and once went with LBJ to Germany to attend the funeral of Chancellor LG the rad Adenauer. The priest can visit cannot Johnsons anytime, although he bring friends along without a specific LB appointment. When the 269-acre State Park was dedicated last Augus’ Father Schneider went there at LBJ's = behest to deliver the invocation. A number ofpoliticians from outside the Hill Country attended the dedi: y» cation ceremonies, too;but surprising! sos the local they were criticized by for coming. One of them explaine eee reaction this way: “We want to keepef Lyndon all to ourselves these days. |