Meet Your Neighbor
Charlie Hughes
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Charlie Hughes may not be a native, but he is as dedicated to Nantucket and as fond of life here as if he had been born and raised on the island.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Brought up in North St. Paul, Minn., after high school Hughes joined the Seabees, the construction arm of the U.S. Navy, and stayed in service from 1957 to 1966. His time was spent primarily on the east coast, including three and one-half years on Nantucket where he performed maintenance on the island's Tom Nevers Navy base.

It was April 1960 when Seabee Hughes met his future bride, Jean, at the Dreamland movie house. They were wed that September, built their ranch-style home at the corner of Newtown and Fairgrounds roads in 1961, and moved into it permanently in January 1962 when Jean had their first son, James. Sherri, the couple's first child, was adopted when she was two.

While still in the Seabees in 1963, Hughes learned that the family was being transferred to Iceland, where their second son, Charles Gisli, was born and where they stayed until October 1966 when Hughes was discharged and the clan "came home." Soon after they returned to Nantucket their third son, George, was born.

Once the family was settled, they began a menagerie on Newtown Road. They started with ponies raced at the old Miacomet Raceway. They had chickens, a goat, "tumbling pigeons" that seemed to fall from the sky till they began flight around 60 feet above ground, then big pigs until 1985. No one seemed to mind the snorting porkers, but the pigeons raised complaints from neighbors who hung wash outside to dry.

Hughes also initiated a series of vocations starting with the Department of Public Works for a year, then as a janitor at Cyrus Peirce School for a couple of years before joining Gardner MacDonald as a carpenter for a four year period.

"Then I went to work for the Steamship where everybody remembers me," said Hughes. Under bosses Mac McHugh, Mal Soverino and Paul Harrington, he served as dock hand and graduated to associate agent during his 22 years with the SSA before he retired in 1996.

Hughes ran his own cab company, but after four years he recognized that his income was not close to meeting his expenses and gave up on that idea. Since then, he said he has essentially been retired other than to help his wife with property matters. Jean Hughes founded Wee Whalers Pre-school in 1969 almost directly across the street from their home, and still runs it with the same three long-standing teachers she has had for decades and new teachers who are all previous Wee Whaler graduates.

What Hughes most loves to do besides spend time with his family, including all three sons and three of his four grandchildren who live in adjacent homes, is collect glass. Precisely, his passion is collecting Hens on the Nest, which number over 100 and are displayed on shelves and across the top of his kitchen cupboards with special backlighting to emphasize their colors.

As to future desires, the Hughes are content. They have a condo in Vermont they enjoy visiting, but Nantucket is where their hearts are.

"We live dreams every day," said Hughes. "There is nothing special we look to do. I just want good health and that my family is healthy and Nantucket continues to be the beautiful place it is and we can continue to enjoy the place," he said. "It is a dream of mine that my kids and your kids could

continue to be here." I

Date of birth February 14, 1939

Hobbies Glass collecting, building, spending time with family.

Likes most about Nantucket Its caring community members who stand by one another in times of need.

Likes least about Nantucket That the government does not seem to listen to the "little" people.

Favorite TV show Celtics, Red Sox Patriots - "I am a sports fanatic."