[birds chirping, rooster crows]
[music]
It was all very basic. No running water. No electricity.
Sauer Beckmann depicts life as a working farm in 1915.
[rooster crows, cow moos, pigs grunt]
Here, chick, chick, chick!
We don’t recreate.
We just continue the traditions and the lifestyle of that period of time.
Oh, the cat’s going to try to move in.
He’s thinking about it.
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.
He said, people aren’t going to know that
if we don’t somehow preserve that.
[music]
These folks didn’t have electricity
so we can’t have an electric motor on our mill.
We’re going to try to be pure to our form down here.
We can’t cheat our grandparents, can we?
You know, these people they ate a lot of lard,
they ate a lot of fat.
But they were working so hard that it really didn’t make them fat
because they burned it all off, didn’t they?
They worked their way through all those calories.
-Is that easy work there, bud? -No.
No? [crowd laughs]
That’s probably one of the big things that now’s really coming around,
especially the last couple of years.
Just, what life was.
What are those basics of what do you need to live?
Do you need all the stuff?
I had a little boy, he was, he came with his grandmother.
And he was whispering something to her
and so she goes, well ask her.
And finally he did. He goes,
he goes, do you have a TV?
And I said, a TV? I said, what's that?
And he said, well, it has cartoons on it
and he goes, and it has a remote.
That’s life. [laughs]
[old music] Get away from the gals and those good-fellow pals.
[music] As long as you’ve got money they’ll be true.
[music] Treat everyone fair. Always be on the square.
[music] And everybody everywhere will welcome you.
[music] Settle down for life with a good little wife.
[music] Remember that’s the day you’ll always bless.
[music] You’ll find sunshine and flowers
[music] and many happy hours on the road to happiness.
Most of the day was spent just cooking meals.
Or working on a meal for another day.
Now look here,
I’ll show you what’s making this stove work.
Ohh!
Is that hot?
And who do you think job might be to keep that woodbox filled?
[dad laughs] Your job! Yeah.
The important rule on the farm here was if you don’t work, you don’t eat.
[music]
Here, chickie, chickie, chickie.
It’s amazing, the reaction that people,
when they watch us feed the pigs or feed the chickens
and they watch us milk the cow, they’re in awe
that they've never seen that happen.
[music]
The closest they’ve ever come to most of this stuff
is in their supermarket
when they get a carton of eggs or a box of butter.
And this opens their eyes to where it really comes from.
Those folks, you gain a big appreciation
for the work that the people that settled this area
how they had to, just to survive in this environment.
You have a great little pair of mules for this up here.
Good girl.
When you ask them to trot, just pop them gently with the rein.
You with me?
The first thing I would do is teach the mule to go forward.
Step in there.
Walk into the shoulder. Stay up, shift,
come right back around, and just step into him.
New Entry 48
Got it? Looks easy, doesn’t it.
Now, what you need to do is to practice it.
[old timey music]
Cluck. He’s not paying any attention to you.
Let me try this again.
Step behind the shoulder. That’s good. Quit clucking.
It’s easy when he does it.
I think one of the things that President Johnson
wanted the public to see here
was here was how life was like when he grew up.
And what made him do many of the legislative acts that he did.
The founding fathers dreamed America
before it was.
The pioneers dreamed of great cities
on the wilderness that they had crossed.
For it will be the dream that we dare to dream.
[applause]
[music]
You really can see why he felt
the public would gain the sense of compassion for history
and how it can shape a person
and how you can make a big difference in life if you really choose to.
You don’t have to start out being wealthy or anyone in particular.
You can mold your life to be whatever you want.
And he happened to grow up to be a President.
And has made a big impact on America and Texas
and this community of the Texas Hill Country.
[LBJ] We seek a nation where every man can seek knowledge.
[LBJ] And touch beauty
[LBJ] And rejoice in the closeness of family and community.
[music]
When you go to the Sauer Beckmann Farm
and you take electricity and running water out of your lifestyle
and see how people survived
and then how creative and inventive and they are
and then all our benefits that we have today
that came from all of that,
[music]
It just awes me when I think back at how far back we’ve come
as a society.
But how important it is to thank our grandparents
and all those aunts and uncles and people who brought us
to where we are today in life.
[music]