At the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, tucked among the artifacts of American power, a museum placard offers a revealing detail: President Johnson loved to shower his family, staff, friends, constituents, and even strangers with gifts. Among his favorites were electric razors and electric toothbrushes.
In fact, Johnson had “give-away” items kept in the Oval Office, including electric toothbrush sets stamped with the Presidential seal. The ritual became so well known that White House staffers collected them. Rumor has it that historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, then a White House intern, amassed several before finally asking Johnson, “Why toothbrushes?”
Johnson’s answer was disarmingly simple: “Because I want people to think of me when they get up in the morning and when they go to bed at night.”
It is an unforgettable line—funny, vain, strategic, and surprisingly revealing. Johnson gave away electric toothbrushes not merely as gifts, but as instruments of memory. He wanted to live in the routines of other people. He wanted to be present not only in Washington, but at the bathroom sink.
Read the full article here
