Payday: The Dan Hughes Story

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youths purchased candy for a nickel a bag at a nearby country store,
and after dividing it into smaller bags, resold it to neighborhood
children, making a couple pennies on each bag. The Hughes brothers
had, through their own experience, discovered free enterprise.
WWII imposed hardship on most families. Money was tight and
entertainment, limited. Many evenings were spent at home listening
to radio programs, news about the war, and serials such as Fibber
McGee and Molly and The Lone Ranger.
The Hughes were strict Christians, belonging to the local Baptist
church. They taught their children the same values that they,
themselves, possessed. Everyone was expected to be in church on
Sunday, and attend Wednesday night prayer meetings. Dan’s strong
Christian upbringing has served him well throughout life, and he
attributes much of his success to his faith, and the Golden Rule of “Do
Unto Others.”
The boys’ father enjoyed hunting and, through him, his sons also
acquired a fondness for the sport. As they grew older, their parents
instilled a healthy respect for guns and taught them to properly handle
them, when they gave each of them B-B guns (and later, a 22-caliber
rifle) for hunting birds, squirrels, and rabbits near their home. Hunting
birds and other wild game would become Dan A.’s second passion.
Every summer, their public activities were limited because of the
polio epidemic of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. Many parents restricted
entertainment at public places because the source of the crippling virus
had not been identified. Instead, the boys spent the summer months
with relatives on their farms in Louisiana where they were expected to
do farm work along with their cousins. Dan says that early taste of farm
life further helped him develop an appreciation for the benefits of hard
work. The farm workday began at 4:00 a.m. when the dairy opened and
adults milked about 150 cows at that time. Too small to milk, they
helped feed cottonseed hulls and bran to the cows. The same routine
was undertaken in the evening; and the next day, they did it all over
again. This showed Dan that there was no time off in the dairy business
because each cow has to be milked twice a day, seven days a week. The
farm experience quickly solidified the fact that farm life wasn’t for him,
and that he’d rather work in the oil and gas business.
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