Laura bush, what was your initial reaction the first time your husband said, i think im going to run for president . I cant really remember exactly what my initial reaction was. I think it was a little bit slower than just all of a sudden saying im going to run for president. He was governor. He had been governor roy interim and reelected and slowly i think we just both started talking about it. He talked about it and of course other people were talking to him about it and i knew what it was like. Now, i knew already what it will be like this. And it wouldnt be like to live in the white house. George and i had an advantage that so far only one other family has said before, John Quincy Adams family. We had visited very often. We moved to washington back in 1986, or 87, rather, to work on president bushs campaign. And so i saw them when they were campaigning nationwide, and they still have time to babysit Barbara Angela on a saturday night when george and i would want to go out to dinner. Really, that year and a half that we lived in washington until president bush was elected in november of 1988 was a wonderful time for our family. It was the only time i ever lived with my in laws, and my motherinlaw and i really had a chance to bond. Our little girls had a chance to get another grandparent in a way that they had not really, because their grandfather had been Vice President for the whole part of their life, 1981, right after he was elected Vice President. So i knew, really, what it would be like. And my hesitation was because i knew what it would be like. I noted in politics to be defined in a way that youre not. Thats what we saw with president bush and it was too distressing for us in 1992, we lost, because we saw characterized in a way that we knew he was not. And thats just the run. And thats also what you know its going to be like, i think, which makes all the difficulty of it, the difficulty of being defined in a way that youre not are being criticized by your opponents or even by your friends, you know, something that you can live with, because you know thats just how it is in america and one of the really great things about our country is that we can say whatever we want about the people who ran for office, and even about our president s, when they were serving. Is it tough to develop that thick skin . It, is it is. And of course it always bothers you but on the other hand, i know george, and i know what hes like, just like we knew his dad and we know what hes like as well so, the criticisms, in a lot of ways just, you know, our criticisms from people who dont know, and who are with you every day, of course, like i was with george every day. How do you grow into the first lady role . I think it took me a long time to grow into it. I knew already, i watch my motherinlaw, which was a huge advantage as well. I knew a lot of things that were just minor things. Under the need to pick a christmas theme in march should be ready with christmas decorations. I knew that for the White House Christmas card you needed to start quite early, especially if you wanted to use an american artist to do the art for the Christmas Card. I mean, those who just things i already knew it was a huge help to know those, but not only did i know how to do those things, the first lady, or at, least i wanted to be evolved, in but i also knew everyone the work there. Georgia die due to potlucks, we do the assurance, we need the white house florist, we knew all the people who served there for president after president and that was a huge advantage for us when we moved in the very first day, there were lots of hugs with the butlers and ushers that we already knew and of course barbara bush was there with us at the white house and all of us were in the house together that very first night and we all knew the people there. In fact, in 1981, or rather, 1998, president bush was inaugurated january 1989, the white house florist met little barbara and jenner, who were seven, and when they got to close the parade and they wanted to come into the white house before we had left the parade and president bush barbara had left the parade, nancy clark, the white house for us met them out the door and took them down into the florist shop and help the make a little bouquet for their bedrooms where they were staying at the white house so, really, for us, it was a wonderful sense of security to already know everyone who work their, to already have a friendship with them. Mrs. Ben bush, growing up as laura welch in midland, texas in the 19 fifties, did you ever imagine the life that youve had . Never, never, we have never thought that i would ever live in the white house. Or are expected to marry someone who would become president. You know, i think thats what happens to a lot of people. Things happen in your life that you dont expect and a lot of them are great and wonderful and of course some or not, but i would have never expected to live at the white house. And i will have to say. I was a teacher, i was elaborate librarian. That is all we want to do. When i was in the second grade, i truly wanted to make my favorite thing to do, reading, it in my career and i did expect that and that is what i went to undergraduate cool for an education degree and then graduate school for library science. And that is what i would not have thought would have helped when my husband became governor but actually it was really great to have worked in Public Schools, to have taught in Public Schools and even have been a public librarian. It was a great advantage to know what it was like working schools because education is such an important issue, both for governor but also for a president and so that was very helpful to me and then of course, having read 1 million stories to kids in all those years was good experience, i think, for speech giving. In your book, spoken from the heart, talk about your grandmother well, or your grandmother and your mother, janet, well and their talent and their abilities. My mother and grandmother were both naturalist. My mother is 94. She is alive and she lives in midland, texas. Shes doing very well. I try to go out there every few weeks and see her. She is not traveling, really, anymore, but shes doing great. But my mother and my grandmother were both naturalist. They were very interested in gardening. Theyre interested in plants. My mother became a birdwatcher when she was my girl scout leader, and we got up, a lifelong interest in birdwatching and that was something that informed my life, that level of outdoors, the whole idea of how beautiful the Natural World is and especially in that he plans and the use of that he plants in the landscape and so when lady project was first lady of the United States, i was always proud that we had a texas first lady who saw the beauty of the Natural World and wanted and encourage people in all parts of our country to plant wild flowers on the highways both because they do the best there, because it is their natural habitat, but also because they are beautiful and every year in washington, when the daffodils bloom on the George Washington park, i am reminded of ladybird johnson because i know she wanted to be that way, and then we plant bush library, we wanted our 15 acre park that surrounds the bush center to be like and that he prairie that wouldve been exactly with the settlers of this part of north texas would have found when that came through here and so we worked with the lady bridges in Wildflower Center to develop the turf grass that we planted all around the bush library. Its a mixture of five native texas grasses, mainly buffalo grass, but others as well, early mesquite and this is the first big application of it as the native turf grass. It should be able to stand up to the use that a College Campus lawn would get and also not need to be watered. How do you get to sme you from midland, texas . Well, i want to look at a number of schools with my mother. I looked at texas tech, which is where my dad went, and his mother, not far from midland, where i grew up, and i look at the university of texas and then with one of my really Good High School friends, we both said, lets go to s p, and thats what we decided to do. I watched a lot of sme Football Players as a high school student, and i knew about the school, really, from its football program, and also i was a methodist in this was a methodist school. What was it like growing up in midland, texas in the 19 fifties . It was a wonderful place to grow up. Midland is very safe. It is safe and very loving community, a community where you knew if you did anything wrong and never saw you they would tell on you. We were free to go everywhere in midland. We went on bikes to a little Shopping Center to eat lunch at the drug counter there, at the pharmacy, drugstore, i had lots of really good friends that i was with for all of those years, and i was still very close to all the people in midland. In fact, i hike all years, with a group of four other middle and friends of mine. It is really terrific now to be with them because now it takes five of us to remember somebodys name, but we also know each others history, we know all of our old boyfriends, we knew all the same things about each other because we all went elementary and Junior High School together and there is Great Security alliance in having friends that were your friends when you were a child and having that kind of history of friendship. George also grew up in midland. The bushes lived there until we were in the eighth grade in a new move to houston. Mr. Bush took his oil Company Offshore and then moved to houston. So, from elementary school, those same great friends of mine, and his friends, that he played Little League baseball with were my friends and we used to invite all of them to the white house, all those friends, we had a festive Valentine Dinner once with those friends of ours and one of my friends who came that dinner address cancer and she was dying, and we knew, she died in april after that, so it was really wonderful to have the chance to be with those friends and to know that they were our friends for a whole life. They are friends for the rest of our life. You even what hiking without your friends when your first lady. Thats right. We had four years before george became president we had entered the lottery, the concession lottery to hide in the camps of yosemite, for about three years while george was governor, but our names were never drawn so soon as he was elected, i call them and said, guess what . You won the lottery. So, in 2001, we hiked in yosemite, which is one of our most Beautiful National parks. We height from camp to camp and we did not really displace anybody, because we were always a day ahead of the other people that came into the camp. We had one day before them. When day before the upper camps opened, so that was really fun. We have to tell the big National Park, yosemite, and, glacier yellowstone, and the grand canyon, that grand canyon was the First National park we have had in together in many years, and when george was president we all took our girls, barbara, and my daughter, one of my daughters was in africa working in a hospital so she did not get to go, but janet did in that was a lot of fun. And we have to yellowstone this summer. We had been back to glacier and back to yellowstone and probably not yosemite because its just too hard for us now at our age. Do people, have been stopped and recognized . Yes, we always do. We have one party is a fundraiser, a lot of the big western parks have friends groups and so this summer we have a big park in the superintendents house for all the supporters of yellowstone National Park to come. That was fun. And what did you enjoy most of it being texas first lady . I love being texas first lady because i love my state, and i know my state so well, having always lived here. The times that i visited when george was governor, and have traveled all over our state. I dont think i made it every single county. I think there are 253 of them but i did make it almost everyone, and in many cases it was nostalgic, being a part of the state that i visited with my parents, and we would go on summer vacations, and we would be in a part of the state where my grandmother lived, in el paso, for instance, or where my dads mother lived and so, i love that. I also love getting to see, like you do get to see in the state, that every governor, every governor spouse gets to see, and that is the very best of your state, and in the most like, unlikely corners of the state, the most terrific programs that texans have founded. A lot of literacy programs, and that was a particular interest, but a lot of really great programs, just groups, womens clubs had started to support, either Child Protective Services protection of children who were abused, or who were in foster families that need special care, literacy programs that were founded so that anyone can come in and be taught how to read. Of course, in our state, we have a lot of people who dont read in english and want to speak english and read in english and so those programs were great to see. I saw west texas where people live very rural lies because youre a long way away from the biggest city thats in that part of the state, i saw a terrific programs see of units that go around to test people see if they have Breast Cancer because just to get people into the biggest hospital that is close to them is a long drive. Would you consider yourself a natural campaign or . A natural public person . I think i would. Now after, all i am a librarian and i would say that im an introvert. I am married to an extrovert, which i like. I mean, one of the things i love most about george was both that he loved to talk, and his sense of humor, i like that a lot. I wanted to be married to someone who could entertain me for the rest of my life, and he has for sure. But what i think its there is a place for this in politics, and it also made me grow in a lot of ways, to not be the kind of shy person that i thought of myself as. Do you remember the first time we had to give a public speech . George and, the great job is that we had the prune up. He had promised i would never have to give a political speech. About three weeks, three months into our marriage, there i was on the steps of the courthouse giving a speech, because he couldnt come. With all the other candidates for the congressional race that he was running for, to democrats and republicans, and george had some obligation. Course, the candidates themselves were the ones shaking their hands to me, you know, you can do it. That was sweet. All the people in the front row. People are very kind, especially to the specific candidate, in our state. You still get nervous for a speech . Not that, nervous but i also have to know that im prepared and running for the top witness long as i have a speech that i think is a good speech. Laura bush, doesnt only, child that was it like marrying into the bush family . It was terrific. I wish on a star, always, exist when i was a little girl, i want to brothers and sisters. My mother, and father, i knew that was a great desire, that the really wanted to love children so, i do too, i want to this president sisters, but then thats what i felt like i got one i married georges and got his brothers and sister, and their spouses, of course, and his sister and her family, and one of his brothers, sons with live in the washington, d. C. Area, and there is great emotional support, really, and having a family Members Around when you live in the white house and i would notice it his brother, one time for tough would call and say, lets watch the game this weekend. They would not talk about politics, its the george and martin could sit and watch a game and they could relax in a way that only you can with your brother with your sister. And then, i worked out several times a week with my sisterinlaw, barbara, and she would drive into alexandria to the white house, early in the morning, for a gettogether, and that was really a lot of fun, and also great emotional support for me and that all came with their children. And, so many times we were going to camp david for the weekend, they would come. And that was a lot of fun. We went to church their, and they would be there with us. How important during your presidency was kennebunkport, the ranch there . Well, the ranch was very important to us and of course we didnt go to kennebunkport that often. You i think we went almost every year that george was president and then i was going to meet with them, with president bush and barbara, where they were, we did not go into thousand five after Hurricane Katrina. We were schedule in a way that we could not go but after Hurricane Katrina we did not go. What part of going there in the summer was just shoot meet with, them with president bush and barr, and you get that kind of emotional support that you get from being with your parents and especially being in such a familiar location, the georgia but this whole life. But the ranch is very important. That is where we vacation, when we took the weeks off that we would take off in august, when the congress had gone home for the vacation, we went to our ranch and also for us, that was our homes, that was the house we had built. That was our property and there was something also really i think in a way it was a break from living at the white house, to be in our own homes, but we also use it to entertain a lot. I think we asked more than a dozen World Leaders, and it gave us a chance to show them what our life was like, it also give us a chance to entertain them in a way that was very personal, not that entertaining at the white house was not also personal and of course people, World Leaders wanted to come to the white house but many of them visited the president at the white house. Some had already v