About the Author

Mel Hughes was born in 1940, in Kinloch Mo, which is a suburb of St. Louis, Mo. He is the youngest of (three girls and two boys) five children. The family was very close knit, but poor. Not destitute, but barely got by. Both parents worked and the children pitched in where they could. They were able to escape poverty and thus survived. His father was a plant worker and served for 20 years, as Chief of the town's all volunteer Fire department. His mother was a factory worker and retired as a seamiest in the garment industry. Mel had always had a gift for music and the arts and; is a saxophonist, singer, songwriter, and poet, who spent ten years as a professional musician. He is married and has five children. After leaving the entertainment field, he held several jobs, one of which was in a steel mill where he worked for eight years as an electrician. When that plant closed in 1981, the country was in a deep recession and work was scarce so he entered college at the age of 42, to expand his electrical skills. While there, he studied electronics engineering technology, English Ligature, and writing. As a direct result of his college training, he was later employed at Washington University in St. Louis. From there he retired (in 2001) as a storeroom manager, after 11 years of service. He was also a handyman, (a trait that he inherited from his father who could fix anything) so, three months after he retired from Washington University, he started a (in 2001, at the age of 61) company called "ODD JOBS INC" which he owned and operated until his second (2014) retirement. Many times his work force was those unable to find work anywhere else, but who had marketable skills. These men were usually from homeless shelters and community help services. They could consist of homeless veterans, parolees and those who found themselves homeless and without jobs or a number of reasons.