Bush's childhood home opens to public

[TexasLawyer]

Midland's newest tourist attraction. Gross!

Bush's childhood home opens to public

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday April 12, 2006
The Guardian


George Bush’s bedroom in his restored childhood home
in Midland, Texas. Photograph: Jeff Mitchell/Reuters


The Bush myth was given a powerful boost yesterday when a modest west Texas house, once home to two US presidents, was formally declared open to the public. 1412 West Ohio Avenue in Midland was George W Bush's childhood home and the scene of many of the happy scenes recalled in the biography A Charge to Keep, published at the time of his 2000 election campaign.

That memoir helped craft the future president's image as a regular self-reliant American, despite the fact that he had been born into one of the most powerful families in the country.

"To get to a friend's house, you would walk down a couple doors, climb someone's fence, cut through a yard, only crossing the street when you absolutely had to," Mr Bush recalled, in words reproduced on a sign outside the building, restored at a cost of $1.9m (£1m).

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1751886,00.html

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. I suppose they'd catch me . . .

. . . if I tried to pee in the closet.

[valerief]

7. Oh, try anyway. Something to tell the grandkids. n/t

[Ayesha]

30. Spray paint, anyone?

Some of those walls could use the word "IMPEACH" in bright red to add to the decor.

[TankLV]

65. I'd just go in with a bursting bladder after a few hours of serious

drinking and walk all thru the place!

Starting with that mattress!

[Ron Green]

2. And America's public home opens to a child (12/2000)

[saigon68]

53. I wonder if they cleaned his toilet

Prior to putting it on display?

[marylanddem]

3. Did they exorcise it yet?

[Blaq Dem]

27. No, but they did remove the urine stains from the bedroom walls

You see, he was a very drunken child back then

[AnneD]

45. Actually....

I seem to remember he started drinking in his early teens (13 or so). Can't remember my source though, sorry. But as a School Nurse, I know those that are chronic alcholics start very early (as early as 8-9).

[catnhatnh]

4. Yep....

...damn little in the line of reading material back then too.....

[CrazyOrangeCat]

9. !

:dunce:

[Kutjara]

5. Do the have a sign showing the closet...

...he must have been locked up in for years to turn out as damaged as he is?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Not a book in sight.

[teenagebambam]

38. I beg to differ!

Another photo shows two issues of Lone Ranger Comics on the desk.

Could explain a lot.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

69. That's the comic that has Tonto donating $200K to the masked man.

[Jazz2006]

56. Not even the Pet Goat book?

No wonder he was so enthralled reading it for the first time in September 2001.

[quaoar]

8. It cost $1.9 million to restore a house?

Good God! Who did the work -- Halliburton?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. I'd be interested in knowing that too...

100,000 for the house
800,000 for Halliburton
and the rest to sell the spin on the house and his "modest" upbringing.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

18. Ma'am, my regards to your enormous anteater.

:beer:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. Cheers!

:toast:

[AnneD]

52. Remember some time ago when China or Russia

use to rehabilitate their past leaders...let the spin begin...

[pinniped]

10. Where is the location of the secret passage to hell?

Under the bed?

Is that a checker board? Croquet set?

Can a monkey learn checkers or croquet?

We all know his IQ isn't sufficient enough to learn chess.

[QC]

21. I believe that is called a "hellmouth."

I know it's got to be there somewhere!

[pinniped]

22. I saw this crazy episode of "haunting" on the Discovery Channel.

This family moved into a house in which they later found out used to be a funeral home.

Weird things started happening and one kid was acting strange.

The experts who investigated the house concluded it was a passageway to hell.:scared:

[QC]

44. I saw that one--creepy! n/t

[C_U_L8R]

11. Did they move it from Greenwich ?

Or did they order it from Hammecher Schlemmer

How bogus.

[Jara sang]

12. Gee, Beav how can the revisionists paint me as "down-to-earth"?

I don't know Wally, we can start off with a faux ranch in the Texas Hill Country, just don't tell them about the houses in Houston, Kennebunkport and beach home in Palm Beach.

[tularetom]

13. What have they done with the palace in CT

that Poopy Bush owned while he was out west pretending to be a Texan? I fuckin betcha that * spent every summer vacation, xmas break and spring break away from Midland texas. This is the most bogus attempt at historical revisionism I've ever seen. Until he has his birth certificate legally altered to reflect hsi himble beginnings. If I were from TX I'd be insulted.

[CTyankee]

66. Yep, * was born right here in the People's Republic of New Haven

while Poppy was finishing up at Yale right after the war. I don't have a picture of where he lived then, altho it was once published in the New Haven Register. I doubt if anyone in New Haven saved it! I certainly didn't want to know where it was. I hope it was torn down in urban renewal or something.

[kskiska]

14. Just like any other All-American Boy

done up in knotty pine and with his very own croquet set to boot!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

16. The asshat won't be too pleased . . .

. . . that they decided to show the world his croquet set. Just a guess, but probably not a lot of croquet goin' on in Tejas in the fifties.

[Charlie Brown]

17. Wow, you get to see how a rich ivy-leaguer spent his youth

Do we get to see his secret stash of porn and pot, too?

Wow, look how hard he had it:

"To get to a friend's house, you would walk down a couple doors, climb someone's fence, cut through a yard, only crossing the street when you absolutely had to,"

Or, of course, you could get Jeeves to bring the car around and escort you to the other oil barons' compounds, carefully avoiding contact w/the dangerous minority neighbors with a gun-brandishing valet.

[llmart]

28. Good one.

This is the biggest pantload of crap I've read lately, trying to make it look like he was "The Beav."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. That must have been where they roughed it while the ranch was being built.

:eyes:

[madaboutharry]

23. This crap makes me want to barf.

What are they trying to do, make it look like he came up from po' folks? The Walker and Bush families were rolling in it.

[calimary]

24. Oh, a common bedroom? I'm surprised it wasn't a manger. Yawn...

Insert dripping OOZING sarcasm here...

[HuffleClaw]

39. bwahhahhhahhaaaaa

'a manger' damn, that is funny. really though, what a complete joke, just disgusting.

[SammyWinstonJack]

57. !

:spray: I'm surprised it doesn't have a dirt floor of the log cabin variety.

[TacticalPeek]

25. Don't trip over the exploded frog carcasses.

:grr:

[anitar1]

26. Can someone loan me the money to get to Midland ? I am unemployed

but wish to see this modest home that our pResident grew up in. Poor little feller!

[salin]

29. wonder if they sell Ignite! products a "gift store" at the house?

[Iris]

31. Check out Carte'rs boyhood home -

Jimmy Carter's bedroom:



And childhood home

http://www.sowega.net/~plainsed/vtour/farmtour.htm

[Bridget Burke]

33. But--there are BOOKS in his room.

The Carters were glad when they finally got indoor plumbing. Note the shower:

[Iris]

36. Yeah - books. How else did you think he got all those craaaaaazy ideas?

:o

[AnneD]

48. Looks like our shower

at Hubby's apt in India. I liked the eh er chamber pot in Carters bedroom. I know from experience that the outhouses are 100 yards to far in the winter and 100 yards to close in the summer.
I swear Grandpa would wait until we were in the outhouse to let the cattle out. Going to the restroom would become and athletic event complete with physical contact. You didn't have to be super fast, just faster than the bull.

[Iris]

67. ha! What a hilarious memory!

You might enjoy Carter's book - An Hour Before Daylight - Memories of a Rural Boyhood (an actual rural boyhood, not a made-for-tv texas ranch style rural boyhood!)

[AnneD]

74. I credit my rural experiences...

with making me the sprinter and stand broad jump champ in middle school, and I have always been able to lift heavy amounts of weight and not think twice. I can shoot straight too.;)

[BiggJawn]

32. So are they gonna put him in a glass coffin in a tomb on the Mall...

...like Lenin?

[tinfoilinfor2005]

37. Heh, heh...I just got back from Russia and saw several Lenin statues.

The locals say the statues are always pointing...to the nearest liquor store. That would fit in with our little lenin too.

[eppur_se_muova]

70. Yes please! Do it NOW!

No need to wait for this silly "death" stuff.

[noamnety]

34. I'm trying to reconcile "restored at $1.9 million"

with this email I received from a coworker last week:

"My friends who live in New Orleans and stayed with us for a while this past Fall called last week to tell me that they are only receiving 10 cents on the dollar from their insurance company to repair their house.

They are going to be 67 years old this year. They met in the Air Force and have been married nearly 50 years.

They have scrubbed the entire house 4 times with bleach and it is still dirty. The mold and dirt just keep creeping back in. Roselyn says that it all must be in the air and seeping up from the ground. She can smell the rotting wood under her home.

... My elder son’s Grandfather died in Biloxi from the storm."

[FlaGranny]

35. The following tells me that

scrubs parents never taught him to respect others or their belongings:

"climb someone's fence, cut through a yard"

The fact that these words pare laced on a sign outside the building shows he STILL thinks its okay to trespass.

[LibDemAlways]

40. Who paid for this?

Who gives a shit where the idiot lived as a kid? My only interest would be in checking the soil and water around there to see if it contains any toxic, brain-cell destroying substances which might help to explain this horrible family's behavior.

[rocktivity]

41. I wasn't aware his childhood had ended...

:evilgrin:
rocknation

[HughBeaumont]

42. Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork, Pork . . .

Gee, how ironic . . .West OHIO Avenue. The very state which went ankles up after being fucked by Bush's policies.

[DoYouEverWonder]

43. Anyone notice the Curious George doll

sitting in the back corner?

I can't believe someone actually put that there.

[FrankLee]

46. It would not surprise me if the place burnt down within the year

...and I want to see Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in the stocks in the public square so we can all spit on them in person.

[Jack Rabbit]

47. The White House has always been open to the public

Since Bush never grew up, any place he has ever resided is his childhood home.

[DemoTex]

49. I would rather take a Drano enema than visit that place.

Many happy scenes? Not too happy for the frogs and cats.

[rocktivity]

50. You mean it's NOT a manger?

rocknation

[baby_mouse]

51. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, SHUCKS.

:eyes:

[Tight_rope]

54. WHO GIVES A SHIT...THIS AIN'T NO DAMN NEWS...

[Jazz2006]

55. Modest?

How does a "modest" house cost 2 million bucks to restore?

And who on earth would want to visit GWB's childhood bedroom?

Sheesh.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

58. Welcome to DU!

Sheesh, indeed. Just keeps getting more surreal, doesn't it?

[Jazz2006]

77. Sure does. And thanks. :)

[arwalden]

59. Does A Plaque Mark The Spot Where He Blew-Up Frogs With Firecrackers?

Is this true? Or just one of those urban myths?

[jberryhill]

60. The White House Has Been Open For a Long Time

...and he is still in his childhood.

[Dulcinea]

61. Barnum was right.

There's a sucker born every minute. What's the admission fee, & who would pay it?

[mfeher71]

62. Will the liquor cabinet be prominently displayed?

How about the bathroom sink, where Junior undoubtedly snorted his first nosecandy?

[BigDDem]

64. wonder what they

did with the coke viles??

[CrazyOrangeCat]

73. Welcome!

:hi:

[BigDDem]

80. Thanks cat!

.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

72. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[dave29]

63. Got Wood?

n/t

[admsitio]

68. Got BUSH?

This house must seems like hell, fire dragons, condenated and bombs, stupid games for a poor mind and so much beer , necesary to avoid the education of the son.

[whistle]

71. Is the frog which George Jr blew up mounted anywhere

[TexasLawyer]

79. good one!!!

I forgot about that.

[twaddler01]

75. Yet another thing we can add to Bush's hall of shame n/t

[BlueInPhilly]

76. Childhood home?

But... but that means he actually GREW UP!!!

[riona]

78. Yipes - wall-to-wall wood

[Bridget Burke]

81. "Midland's Newest Tourist Attraction"???

Plan your fun-filled trip to Midland right here: www.visitmidlandtx.com/

[winston61]

82. parts of the German death camps have

been preserved as well- a lesson that this can never be allowed to happen again.