The time George Taylor almost hit
LBJ going 100 mph in 1967. Johnson City pharmacist said Lyndon Johnson was a
“damned pill head” who demanded drugs without a prescription
George Taylor (gt46tc@sbcglobal.net) on 6/11/11,
telling about his 1967 LBJ experience:
My "hot rod" was certainly not the one songs were written about. It was a 1961 Falcon that I fitted with a high performance V8 that I feel would have run 135 mph. It was in that car in 1967 my 65 year old father Jack Taylor and I were returning from a family visit in Tucson.
The roads were good and the weather was clear. There was little traffic and even at 100 mph I found myself getting passed. We pulled out of Fredericksburg and were about half way of the 30 miles or so from Johnson City Texas on State Hwy 290. I was running about 100 mph when to my left across a prairie I saw what I felt was a tornado. As the "tornado" got closer I realized it was a black Lincoln driving at high speed across the prairie. We were traveling at the same angle and would have intersected had I not slowed down. The Lincoln went through a barbed wire fence. The big car "rooster tailed" as it left the dirt and entered the highway slinging gravel and debris ahead of me. The black "tornado" pulled away from me at speeds well above 100 mph heading east on 290. In just moments it was gone. But for a glance I saw the driver looking as drunk as Hooter Brown. The prairie was the LBJ Ranch and the driver was LBJ.
We stopped in Johnson City for fuel. It was up to 35 cents a gallon. Seemed like only months before it was 27.9 cents. A little before that I had bought fuel for 7.9 cents in a "gas war". I told the gas station owner I was young but realized 7.9 cents was too cheap. He just laughed and told me I had no idea what was going on. The drill was to put the independents out of business. He told me when I was grown I would not believe what gas would cost. At 35 cents a gallon I was starting to understand.
Pop asked where he could find the drug stores in Johnson City. The pump jockey (yes..for 35 cents they filled the tank for you). The attendant laughed and said there are no "stores"...just one of each. There was only one drug store in 30 miles.. left at the light and a few blocks up.
Pop asked the druggist a question about a medication and then asked what the chances were of the president coming in the drug store. The druggist answer was just what pop wanted to hear..."not a chance in hell...I barred the sob from my drug store". Pop said you barred the President of the United States from his hometown drug store... the only drug store in 30 miles? Yes...that damned pillhead Lyndon comes in here with a list of drugs he wants. I tell him I need a doctors prescription. Lyndon explodes. Says there is no higher law in the land than a Presidential Order and he is ordering the druggist to fill the drug list. The druggist tells LBJ that he is not getting anything without a prescription from a doctor. LBJ explodes. The druggists tells LBJ he can have his goons take the druggist out back and work him over...but he is not getting drugs. The druggist told LBJ to get out and not come back.
It was and interesting civics lesson my high school had not prepared me for.
A side note per the JFK investigation. My brother Alfie was a crack pool player who hung at the Cotton Bowling Palace in Dallas. It was a hub of nightlife and frequented by Jack Ruby. Alfie figured the feds would swoop down on the Cotton Bowling Palace and investigate all the known Ruby associates. No fed ever showed. It was as if an investigation was not necessary and they already knew everything they needed to know.
I knew throwing away my radio was a good thing.”
UNQUOTE
Postscript
from George:
“I
was heading east...the ranch to my left to the north.. The Lincoln was heading
southeast at an angle and we made eye contact as he pulled in front of me. If
he was not high he was doing a great W C Fields impersonation. GT”
