Tribute to Charles Hughes

Chicken Nuggets and John Deere

Remembering Charles Hughes

By Bob Jaussaud

I just learned of Charles Hughes' death and it saddened me. We had some good times together and I choose to remember those. Some of you may recall that years ago, Sue and I had an old mobile home at our place on the Colorado River. It was old to begin with and it rapidly got a lot older with each party. It eventually got so dilapidated that Sue refused to stay in it. That is when Tom Church and I began our "wine and river" trips together. We amused ourselves by working on Harley Davidson and old car projects in the garage. Charles regularly joined us and Jim ProfÞt came out when he could. We thought the good times would never end.

Charles was a good chef and applied himself at our old mobile man cave. We ate very well. One time Charles decided to make chicken nuggets from scratch for dinner. I remember Charles coming up to the garage where I was working to tell me I had better get down to the mobile if I wanted any. It seems that Tom was eating them as fast as Charles could make them.

Another time we were working on the really old John Deere tractor that I had collected. It was so old that it didn't have an electric starter. One had to spin the giant ßywheel in hopes that it would fire up. I was not having any success. Charles suggested that we might try and tow it behind his brand new Hummer to see if it would start. Securely attached to the Hummer with a stout pull chain, the tractor did indeed start. In fact, it chugged along and was picking up speed. I didn't know which lever to pull to stop it. The tractor was headed straight for the back of the Hummer when Charles finally saw what was happening in his rear view mirror. He ßoored the Hummer and it sped ahead... until it reached the end of the chain. Thankfully, the tractor quit, to never run again, and we ground to a halt.

Now Tom, Jim and Charles are gone, but they are not forgotten.