Just who is Sam Rayburn?

The Sam Rayburn Tollway

When we moved to Texas a few years ago I noticed that one of the highways was named after someone named Sam Rayburn. I did not recognize the name, so I just assumed he was a local celebrity. Wrong assumption.

On a weekend trip we went to the Sam Rayburn House Museum and The Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham, Texas. Who was Sam Rayburn? Obviously he was an important man since he has so many things named after him like a major highway, a dam, a lake, The Rayburn building in DC, and a nuclear submarine to just name a few. Also, his home is a historic site, and there is a Sam Rayburn Library/Museum to recognize and remember him. He most definitely was a very important man.

The statue Sam Rayburn in front of the Sam Rayburn Library.

Our first stop on our trip was the Sam Rayburn Library. This is what we learned about Sam Rayburn, or Mr. Sam as he was affectionately called. Sam was born in Tennessee on January 6, 1882, and his family moved to Fannin County, Texas in 1887 and eventually made their home in Bonham. Sam went to college at 18 years old, and alternated between college and teaching while earning his B.S. in just 2 years. He taught school for two years then left to become a lawyer and legislator.

A life size statue of Mr. Sam in the Library.

Sam won a State House seat in 1906 and went to law school in between sessions. He took the bar in 1908. Sam was reelected in 1908 and 1910 which he served as the Speaker of the Texas House. This is one of the amazing facts about Sam Rayburn, He was elected to the United States Congress in 1912 as a Democrat and after that election he had no Republican opponent at any time during all the years he served in the US Congress. What is amazing about that fact is that Mr. Sam had the longest record of service that ran for forty-nine continuous years.

That alone is amazing but out of those 49 years he served as the Speaker of the House in 1940 and was the speaker during every Democratic controlled Congress until his death in 1961. During 4 of those years when the Republicans held the majority, Sam was the minority leader. He served Congress under Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt,Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. He was also very good friends with fellow Texan, Lyndon Johnson.

Items that belonged to Mr. Sam

The eight Presidents that Sam served under during his years in Congress.

In 1927 Mr.Sam married Metze Jones, a sister of one of his friends from Congress, but the marriage only lasted 2 1/2 months. They divorced and Sam never married again. His sister Lucinda Rayburn filled in as his companion during any official events. Sam was very close to his family. He built a house in 1916 on 121 acres of land he bought just outside of Bonham, Texas in 1914.

The front of Sam's house

The back of Sam's house

Sam originally lived in the house with his parents, sister Lucinda and his brother Tom. As the years went on the family that lived with him came and went, siblings and cousins, but Lucinda was a constant in his life. His farm had cattle in the pasture and they grew sorghum, (a cereal grain that grows like corn and is mainly used to feed livestock), corn and cotton.

This picture of Lucinda hangs in the House in the parlor.

Sam's bedroom in the second floor of the house.

The place setting that the Rayburn's used for entertaining. I love the knife prop.

Sam Rayburn was a terrible driver. He put bumps and dents in his truck, and in his sister's car. It was a good thing that the Speaker of the House had a congressional funded official speaker's limo for him.

Sam's truck with all its dents!

There is a great story about Sam when he lost his position as speaker in 1947 and no longer had the limo. A group of Democratic congressmen wanted to buy him a replacement Cadillac, but he had a rule that he would not accept any gifts over $25. So, the Dems in Congress collected $25 checks from 142 Democrats and 50 Republicans and purchased Mr. Sam a 1947 Cadillac for $3600. Sam was outsmarted and had to accept the gift, but returned the checks to the Republicans along with a heartfelt thank you, because he felt that accepting their gifts may be looked upon as a conflict of interest. Sam only had to use the car for 2 years because the Democrats took back the Congress in 1949 and he was once again Speaker. He had the car until his death in 1961 and then his sister sold the car. Then in 1975 it was donated to the Sam Rayburn House Museum where it is today nicely tucked into the garage.

The Cadillac that was bought for Sam by his friends in Congress

The Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham is a spectacular building that has wonderful displays, including an exact replica of his office in Congress and his personal library. Every book in the Sam Rayburn library that was read and owned by Sam had his initials on page 99. Among the books in the library is the complete proceedings of the United States Congress. These publications start with the First Continental Congress of 1774 to the present. These books are used as an invaluable source for researchers.

The front of the Sam Rayburn Library

The replica of Sam's office in the Capital.

The library section of the Library.

One of the books off of the library shelves with Sam's initials on page 99.

As a new Texan, I sure learned a whole lot about this political power house. It makes so much more sense to me as to why everything is named after this very special Texas Son.

Even More Funny Signs

These never get old to me. Love to find the signs, or items that make you laugh, or just scratch your head.

Here are a few:

My sweet sister Jean sent us this yummy gift for Christmas for several years. Every year my kids changed the letters around and every year they settled on Merry Cramshits! Oy Vey!

Being attacked by clowns is a common fear nowadays.

How weird is it that I got both of these advertisements on the same day? Do you think they had the same advertising company? 

This is my new motto! 

This is abbreviating gone a muck. 

If it is free, does that make it legal?

Timing is everything! I am not sure these two signs showing at the same time made some women feel better about our new President.

A sticker from the Department of Redundancy Department.

No matter what the weather is, I always drive with cake! Delicious! 

Love this sign placement!

Hope you enjoyed the "last" installment of my funny sign series!  There will never really be a "last" installment, because there will never been an end to my quest to find more funny signs.

Eisenhower's Birthplace

On one of our day trips to check out the history sites in our new home state of Texas, we went to Denison, Texas, a small town in Northeast Texas, to see the birthplace of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After David and Ida Eisenhower's retail business failed in Hope, Kansas, they moved to Denison, TX where David found a job with the railroad as an engine wiper. David moved to Denison, ahead of the family, in 1889 and started working for $40 a month, then his wife Ida and their two small son's moved to join him soon after.

This is the bust inside the Welcome center.

This is a picture of David and Ida Eisenhower

The Eisenhower's rented a small house on Day Street in Denison for $8 a month. On October 14, 1890 their 3rd son, Dwight, was born in the Day Street home. The house was a small home, but the Eisenhower's took in a boarder to help the family financially. This house had no modern day conveniences, and that included running water. The homes in those days had a choice of getting their water from a cistern or a well. A cistern is a storage container that is usually stored underground where rainwater is stored. Why would you guess the Eisenhower house had a well instead of a cistern?

This is the rental house where President Dwight Eisenhower was born. You can see how close the train tracks were in front of the house.

This may be the room where Dwight was born.

The dining room in the house.

The Eisenhower's home had a train track that ran right in front of their house. It was literally in their front yard. With passing trains, comes soot. This house was in Texas, and obviously no air conditioner, so the windows and doors were open all the time. The house and all its furnishings were covered in soot, and that would include their roof. So having a cistern to collect rain water off their roof was not an option. They were left with the option of the labor intensive job of getting water from the well and carrying it to the house to do laundry, cooking and bathing. They would have to carry buckets of water weighing about 8 lbs many times a day. I would imagine when hanging laundry on the line that their wet clothes were a magnet for soot. They had to dust and sweep constantly to try to keep the house clean.

The coal stove in the very small kitchen.

The house had a coal burning stove and the cost of coal for a family was about $3 a ton. But, with living so close to railroad tracks the Eisenhower's only had to gather coal from along the tracks in front of their house where coal fell from passing trains.

The stove in the living room with a bucket of coal next to it.

David, Ida and their three sons only lived in Denison for for a few years and then moved on to Abilene, Kansas. David went to work for his brother-in-law at a creamery. The Eisenhower parents lived in Abilene for the rest of their lives.

Dwight didn't return to Texas until some 23 years later when he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio as a second lieutenant in the Army. Dwight met his wife Mamie while Stationed in San Antonio. Dwight and Mamie were married on July 1, 1916.

Dwight at West Point.

Mamie before she was married.

Dwight, aka "Ike" was a five star General in the Army during WWII, he was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, and after the war he was the first Supreme Commander of NATO.  Ike served under President Harry Truman as Army Chief of Staff and then he was the President at Columbia University. Dwight ran for president of the US as a Republican in 1952 and won. He was the first president under the 22nd Amendment which instituted term limits of two terms for the office of president. President Eisenhower was the first President from Texas, he was the creator of NASA, he was responsible for the total desegregation of the US Armed Forces, and he created the interstate highway system. No wonder Denison is so proud to be the birthplace of Ike.

President Elect Eisenhower and Mamie just after the election.

Dwight Eisenhower's birthplace became a state park in 1958 during his presidency. The Park has a visitors center in a small house on the grounds that has a small museum that includes a film you can watch while waiting for your guided tour of the house. The house is one of the only houses still standing from the 1890s in the neighborhood. The home has been refurbished and filled with replica furniture and antiques from the correct time period. There is a statue of Ike next to the house and a small stretch of train tracks in front of the house where the original tracks were over 100 years ago.

This is the piece of tracks they have in its original place in front of the Eisenhower Home. You can see int he picture of the house above how close the tracks were to the house.

What a great history gem we found in Denison. Not only did we enjoy the Eisenhower Birthplace, but the gentleman in the visitors center told us about the Talimena National Scenic Byway in Oklahoma and Arkansas. We just took a trip there over Easter Weekend. More blog material to share, Yippee!

Pacifier Anyone?

A pacifier (American English), dummy (United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries and Ireland), binky or soother (Canadian English), and teether (Philippine English) is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple given to an infant to suck upon. 

I remember when my kids were born there was always this controversy about whether to, or how long to, give your baby a pacifier. We as new parents, over 32 years ago, decided to use the pacifier. For our first baby we took it away at 9 months, and our daughter never missed a beat. She was never one of those babies that really craved the pacifier, but she was a blanket chewer instead. Not sure if that was better or worse, but it would have been easier to bring with us a pacifier, than a blanket.

Our second baby used a Playtex nurser pacifier over 30 years ago when they were huge and resembled the baby bottle nipples by Playtex. The pacifier was made of all rubber and had a large flat piece with a big hoop handle. As an infant he would get his hand into the ring and fling the pacifier across the room. We took the handle off and he would then get his tiny hands behind the large flat back and still fling it, but just not as far. This son was not that attached to the pacifier either, but would chew on the ears of a stuffed sock dog he called Doug. He was done with the pacifier at about 18 months.

These were the original Playtex bottle nipples. Sorry, this picture looks a little racy, lol.

This is what a Playtex pacifier looks like after 30 years, dark and crusty. I have no idea why I still have it. HOARDERS!

Our older two kids were too young to really give the pacifier a name, and most of the time we just called it a plug. Then there was our youngest son, the pacifier lover. This boy loved, loved, loved the pacifier. He called them a pippy, and he had at least 5 in all different colors. He even had one in pink thanks to his Grandpa. My parents were babysitting our kids and they could not locate his pippy, so my colorblind Dad went to the store and came home with a pink pacifier. That boy did not care about the color as long as it worked, lol.

This is the pacifier we found behind my younger son's dresser 20 years ago. Once again I have no idea why I still have this.

Our youngest had the pacifier for much longer than we thought he should, but it was so soothing to him, and by the time he was two he had to keep them in his bed, and they were not allowed out of the bed. If he was upset, or just needed a pippy fix, he would go up to his room, sit on his bed to suck on a pacifier, and you could see his eyes roll back into his head. As the weeks and months went on the number of pacifiers would dwindle and he would sneak them out of his bed and lose them. When he just turned three he was down to one yellow pacifier. One night he went to bed and the pacifier was not there. I asked him if he took it out of his bed, and of course he said no. He had to go to sleep without the pacifier for the first time, and he was not happy about it. Several weeks later I was talking to my neighbor and she asked if our son was missing a yellow pacifier. I said yes, and she said she found it on her front porch and thew it away. There was no turning back. A few years later we were moving to a new house and when we were moving his dresser there we found a pacifier behind the dresser. That boys eyes lit up and he looked like he found the worlds greatest treasure. If I would have let him I am sure he would have plopped that pacifier right in his mouth. I look at him and said, "Don't you even think about it!"

This is my grandson's pacifier. It was clear but glowed in the dark so he could find it at night in his bed.

My Grandson was also a pacifier user. He called his pacifiers pippy, binky and paci. He had reflux as a newborn and the pacifier was very helpful to him. He also loved the pacifier and after about 18 months he was only allowed to have it at nap time and a bedtime. I think my daughter thought it was going to be a lot harder to get him off the pacifier than it was, but he did finally get rid of it before three and I have seen him have the same look as my son had when he sees one of his old pacifiers.

This is my granddaughter's Blanket and pacifier just waiting for her to visit Meemaw and Papa.

Last we have my granddaughter! This little girl is totally addicted to the pacifier. She was a preemie and the pacifier was a great comfort to her when she was in the NICU for over 6 weeks. She has the funniest name for the pacifier. It started out as a paci and binky and the last several months she calls it bubbles, which she pronounces "bubbows". I would put her in my car and  she would start saying bubbows, and I had no idea what she was talking about. So, I asked my daughter and she told me the story of why the pacifier is now called bubbles. There was a pacifier on her kitchen counter next to a bottle of bubbles. My granddaughter would reach for the the pacifier and they thought she wanted the bubbles, so they kept telling her, "No you can't have the bubbles." This was about the time she was really starting to talk and so she just started calling it bubbles. How cute is that?

This is our sweet "Pickle", my name for her, when she was still in the NICU. You can see she still had the feeding tube in her nose and the pacifier was as big as her face.

This little 22 month old loves her bubbles. She wants it in the car, for naps, bedtime and anytime in between. She is only allowed to have them in bed, but she will try to get them all the time. The girl loves her blanket and her bubbles. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of "Pickle" with her two favorite things, her blanket and pacifier.

On Easter this sweet girl and her family came to Meemaw and Papa's house for Easter dinner. My granddaughter is just getting into playing with baby dolls. She had a small cloth doll we got her for her first Christmas, and I told her Meemaw will make her baby a Duplo bed. So, I made her the bed and she put her baby in the Lego bed. Then she looks at me and said, "Blankie!" So, we took the throw blanket off of the couch and covered the baby. I said "Night, night baby." She started patting the baby and then she looked up at me with the sweetest face and said, "BUBBOWS!" I was trying not to laugh and was not sure how I was going to get this baby a pacifier. Then I looked in the Lego basket and saw a construction cone and ta da, Bubbles! She was so excited! 

Meemaw's masterpiece the Duplo baby bed. I made the bed a headboard with cabinets for her bedtime books. My grandson decided that he would use a scoop from a bulldozer to make a bed light for her to see her books in the dark. Genius!

Pickle's baby in her new bed with her blankie and bubbows!

Guess what Meemaw is going to get my sweet granddaughter for her 2nd Birthday next week? That's right, a baby doll with a blankie and bubbows!