Presidents' kids talk about White House life

Steve Ford garnered laughs during a panel discussion Thursday with fellow children of former presidents as he recalled dragging a stereo onto the roof with a friend his first night there in 1974.

A teenager at the time his father took office, he said, "I think we were playing like Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven.' Literally, it was like 'Dumb and Dumber.'"

Jenna Bush Hager later told Ford, "You can still get up on that roof, because I had my first kiss with my husband up there."

Her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, and Lynda Johnson Robb also spoke during the conference, which is part of a series focusing on the nation's first ladies. But Thursday's event was the first in which their children have participated, offering a different perspective about life in the White House.

The conference, "The Enduring Legacies of America's First Ladies," was hosted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin and was presented by American University and the White House Historical Association.

Ford noted that his family got to the White House in a "different way." His father was appointed vice president after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, and then became president after the resignation of Richard Nixon.

He noted that Nixon's presidency ended so abruptly that the Nixon family's possessions were still being packed after Ford was sworn in, so the Ford family returned to their suburban Washington home for several days.

After his father was sworn in, his mother, Betty Ford, fixed the family dinner.

"She looks over at my dad and says, 'Gerry, something's wrong here. You just became president of the United States and I'm still cooking,'" he said.