At Bush home in Dallas, security is by the book

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By BUD KENNEDY

bud@star-telegram.com

kennedy DALLAS — They used to live in the White House.

Now the Bushes’ home is an unassuming pale red-brick house.

And since we weren’t allowed to take any Southern Living-style photos at a Texas Book Festival garden party last week, I’ll just tell you that the former president and first lady live in a 1950s ranch-style house on a wooded cul-de-sac and that you won’t get close without a full security check.

"Empty your pockets, please."

"Keep your ID in view at all times."

"No photos of the house at any time. Or the back fence. Particularly not the perimeter of the yard."

"Who are you with again?"

"No photos of the windows. Nothing toward the house. Nothing toward the fence."

Basically, we were invited to visit Laura Bush’s back patio and take pictures of her at a lectern, which replaced the usual rustic wooden bench.

Without photos, we could only take inventory:

Outdoor grill? Check.

Hammock? Check.

Volleyball? Check.

Scottish terrier? Check.

(Miss Beazley, 4, came out to meet the press. Barney, 9, stayed inside with most of the guests, the $15,000 "Author’s Circle" donors to the annual charity book festival Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Austin.)

We had entered through a high-tech sliding wooden backyard gate.

The guy who lives there wasn’t home.

On this day, Bush was commander in chief of her patio.

For about 10 minutes, she talked about her love for libraries and the festival, a weekend of panel discussions and special events that has raised $2 million for Texas libraries since she co-founded it in 1996.

Until now, the festival has been an Austin civic event. But Bush wants Dallas support and dollars and maybe some events at the presidential library at Southern Methodist University.

Asked whether Dallas needed a festival, she replied: "I hope Dallasites will go to the Texas Book Festival. It’s a really terrific one."

Festival Executive Director Heidi Marquez Smith of Austin said the event is emphasizing that "we’re the Texas Book Festival.  . . .  We want people all over Texas to feel ownership."

Author Stephen Harrigan was on hand. His The Gates of the Alamo is one of Bush’s favorite books.

"At a time when the book industry is facing a crazy future, this is one of the events that has brought books to the people of Texas," Harrigan said.

"Both the president and Mrs. Bush are avid and wide-ranging readers. That kind of gets suppressed in all the political noise."

Bush said her husband "loves his Kindle" reader.

She even gave the Legislature a ribbing.

"I always love it," she said with a grin, "that our Texas Capitol and the Senate and the House floors are turned over to literature for at least one weekend out of every year."

It’s the only time you hear anything intelligent in the Capitol.

Bud Kennedy’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538 Twitter @budkennedy

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