Payday: The Dan Hughes Story

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Dan Hughes biography-chapter 1_Layout 1 2/17/2016 2:51 PM Page 12 Swanson Hill School, a Country School near Palestine, Texas. The Hughes brothers were eight years old (Dan far left, front row, and Dudley, third from right, front row). The primary crop grown on the farm was cotton, which was picked by men and women in conditions that had not changed much from former slave days. The twins used cotton sacks and picked cotton along with the other laborers, and were paid one penny per pound. They worked hard for hours and still only had about thirty pounds. Regular black laborers picked about 150 pounds during the same time. The boys couldn’t understand why the adults picked more cotton than they did. It was a lesson well learned about output, supply and demand—not to mention the hard work and dedication that was expected of them. The family traveled on weekends and during summers to Kilgore, Texas, about 60 miles from Palestine, where another aunt and uncle lived. The trips coincided with the early development of the giant East Texas Oil Patch in the midst of a tremendous drilling boom. Arriving after dark, the glow in the sky from thousands of flaring oil wells could be seen 40 miles away, brightening the horizon as if it were day. Dan’s uncle was a mechanic for oil field engines in a business he owned and overhauled large engines. It was then, that the oil “bug” really began to nibble at Dan. 12
Dan Hughes biography-chapter 1_Layout 1 2/17/2016 2:51 PM Page 13 Although still quite young, the Hughes boys had experience in earning their own money whether from a make-believe candy store or as farmhands. Much of the work was tough, but at the end of the day, they liked the feeling and reaping the rewards of hard work. One of their last summers at Swanson Hill School, they landed weekend jobs delivering circulars for a finance company. They worked about a year-and-a-half and earned enough to purchase bicycles for about $30 apiece. The bikes provided transportation until they were old enough to get their drivers’ licenses. Once they acquired licenses, they were allowed to drive the family car delivering telephone books. They quickly learned life didn’t “just happen.” By working, they could make it happen! “I remember December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed,” says Dan. “That Japanese mission killed so many of our servicemen and women, and changed the lives of all Americans over the next few years. Even as young as I was, I saw the change as the United States converted all of its industries to producing war products; and much of the nation’s food and goods were rationed. The items that affected my family the most were automobiles, tires, gasoline, meat, sugar, and cartridges and shotgun shells, which we used for hunting. My father was exempted from serving in the war because of his age and his job supplying natural gas. His job was considered essential to the war cause. The local home guard installed a large steamboat-type whistle on the pipeline behind our house, which was blown with high pressure natural gas instead of steam. This was a preparedness test for enemy aircraft had there been a real threat.to the nation’s safety,” says Dan. As he matured with the small jobs he had held throughout his youth, Dan landed a job the summer after Pearl Harbor in an automotive garage where he repaired vehicle bodies and replaced auto windows. He found it to be a laborious job as he hammered out crushed parts, filled in dents, and learned to spray paint. Still, he liked the rush that he felt from having done a day’s work for honest pay. “I felt this was important work because no new cars were being manufactured during the war. It was up to everyone to keep the old ones running,” he says. The job lasted all summer and was part time the following school year. 13
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Payday: The Dan Hughes Story

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