Lady Bird and the Bluebonnets

This time of year folks like to pull off of the interstate and smile for a picture or two among the bluebonnets. You might even say that grinning among the lupines has become a tradition here in the Lone Star State. Yet this Texas tradition is not old as far as traditions go. In fact, its origins only date back to the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The Highway Beautification Act was actually Lady Bird Johnson's darling. Lady Bird wanted to lower the number of billboards along the nation's highways, to keep junkyards out of sight, and to see wildflowers along the interstate. In Texas, she encouraged the planting of bluebonnets and other native wildflowers, and she even gave out highway beautification awards. As a tribute to her leadership and vision, the Lady Bird Johnson Royal Blue bluebonnet was named in her honor. So the next time you and yours are grinning among the bluebonnets, be sure to give a cosmic nod of thanks to the First Lady of Wildflowers.

Here is a link to more information about the Lady Bird Johnson Royal Blue:

https://www.klru.org/ctg/resource/bluebonnet/ 

I snapped this bluebonnet picture from the window of my car a couple of weeks ago.

  And here is Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys performing "Blue Bonnet Lane."