Home of Two Presidents, Two Governors, and One First Lady

Saturday was a beautiful day, so Mom and I visited the boyhood home of George Bush in Midland.

George H. and Barbara moved from New England to the Midland-Odessa area in 1948. This was the second home they owned in their early married life--hard wood floors, gas heaters, small closets, nice light fixtures....

Does anyone remember these phones? There was even a little, thin phone book from the '50s with the Bush listing--MU4-4380; it was not a party line.

The Bushes were a pretty typical family moving up in the oil business in Midland. Young George was in baseball, and among other things, the Roy Rogers Riders Club, along with about 2 million other American kids.

Roy Rogers Riders Club had the following rules:

1. Be neat and clean.

2. Be courteous and polite.

3. Always obey your parents.

4. Protect the weak and always help them.

5. Be brave, but never take chances.

6. Study hard and learn all you can.

7. Be kind to animals and care for them.

8. Eat all your food and never waste any.

9. Love God and go to Sunday school regularly.

10. Always respect our flag and our country.

Hmmm...this is surely different from the wanton standards set by the fallen Hollywood stars of today. G.W. had his own room, with a desk, and a wall of shelves. There is a lot of knotty pine paneling in the house; this paneling is really amazing--over 1/2 inch thick. We had the same thing in the den of our house at Jayton.

The bed is a built in, and the Prez said it looked just like this back in the day.

I loved the kitchen! This ivy china is exactly what Mrs. Bush had, even though this isn't hers.

The ivy wallpaper is the same. The turquoise refrigerator was donated by Laura Bush's mother, and it still works.

No dishwasher, and cabinets on one wall.

Really cool tins! I remember getting Peter Pan peanut butter in a can, and I wish I had a can of Donald Duck coffee. Midland had a homecoming for W. and Laura after they left Washington, and in his speech he said, "It seems improbable in that little house on Ohio Street that there would be two presidents and a governor of Florida." And a first lady, I would like to add. Ordinary people can, and do become president--if God wants them to. We stopped at Wal Mart on the way home, and Mom watched the Wal Martians part of the time. She saw one woman with a T-shirt and black pantyhose and that is all! Dang! I should have left my camera with Mom! She could have gathered material for the Master of the Universe to publish. Of course, the big mama with the pantyhose might have wallowed her to the ground, and tore my camera to pieces, so it's probably just as well she didn't have this responsibility. I had the pleasure of checking out behind a couple who had burgundy hair, and the man had a T-shirt with the sleeves cut out so the whole world could see his flab (and tattoos). I was more interested in what they were buying for their three kids--3 liters of Coke, and a stack of TV dinners, pot pies (the real nutritious stuff). There was not a pound of hamburger (and believe me--I was looking), no potatoes, cans of tomatoes, spaghetti or dried pintos. Do some people really not know how to cook? I guess it is just too much trouble for them.