Subject: Re: What we do in the country?

From: [email-masked] (Dean Hughson)
Date: 12 May 1994 22:20:59 GMT

Well, Charlie, here is an article on my projects.  I am working on trying to
improve our area.  If anyone is looking for a neat small town to call home
contact me  (816-645-2155 days) or email and I'll show you around....NW
Missouri is every bit as nice as the Ozarks and not built up.  Good place to
raise kids and cheap prices to buy houses/land,etc.

Dean Hughson, Braymer MO

RURAL LIVING--Movers and Shakers-People who make things happen in Northwest
Missouri February 1994 issue

Every Small Town Needs a Sage and a Booster

Braymer, Missouri, a small town of fewer than 800 people, may seen like an
unlikely spot for a man like Dean Hughson to land, much less set up
operations.  Bit it's home, it's comfortable and it could get even more
homey if its newest promoter has his way.

Hughson's family has been here since the 1860's and he entered the world
right here in 1951.  His parents divorced when he was young and he moved
with his mother to Kansas City.  But Braymer was where he came on weekends
and summers to visit his grandparents, to think and relax and soak up small
town values.  He's got great memories of the things that make small towns
buzz, like the day Dr. Pepper was introduced and the time he watched Aunt
Jeminima flipping pancakes at McBee Chapel.

Following a career as an alcohol and drug counselor, then a period of making
lots of money as vice-president of sales for an international food company,
Hughson is back home.  What brought him back to Northwest Missouri is a tale
of pain, beginning with divorce papers being handed to him when he got off a
plane from Tokyo at age 40.

"I found out making money was not important when your kids can be taken away
from you" says Hughson ruefully.  He began a court battle over custody
rights that continues today.

A friend convinced him to move from Arizona to Kansas CIty and it wasn't
long until he was back in Braymer.  Dean and his new wife have built a house
on the Hughson family farm and he's now enscounced in a business building on
Braymer's main street that serves as headquarters for his international
consulting business in food processing.   The building is also a base for
several other activities, including an international computer support group
for divorced fathers and a push to promote Braymer as a good hometown for
people in search of one.

"It suddenly occurred to me that a small town is a good place to focus
energies and do good deeds," recalls Hughson.

Computers and modem technology figure heavily in the good deed department.
He's trying to get more computers into the local school.  As a testimonial
of the value of modem technology in communications, Hughson likes to tell
the story of how he had a blind date via fax with a Mexican woman who is now
his wife.  And as a former director of the Union Council for Soviet Jews, he
helped smuggle fax machines into the former Soviet Union to start an
underground fax network.  He also helped get some 6,000 Penecostal
Christians out of the former Communist country.

Dean likes big causes.  In the sixties, he was involved in the peace
movement.  In the late 70's and early 80's he was mainly caught up in making
money, but then he did a lot of charity work, including the Soviet projects.
Now his cause is the future of his small hometown andhelped divorced dads
get through the trauma of being without their children.

Actually, Hughson secretly desires to be the 'sage' of Braymer.  "There's
always been room for small town eccentrics.  it's just too bad they don't
fund resident philosophers." he adds with a laugh.

And Dean does fit the mold of eccentric in this conservative and close-knit
town.  He drives a Rolls Royce and a sports car, collects art, antiques and
international friends, raises Anatolian Shepherd dogs and isn't just talking
about writing a book--he's doing it.  Many Braymerittes raise their eyebrows
and wonder at such strange activities, but they're slowly warming to the
large man with an even larger heart.  It's obvious to them that he cares.

"I'd like to see writers move here and people who have home-based
businesses." says Hughson about an idea he has to push people disenchanted
with urban areas to adopt Braymer as their hometown.  "We need more people."

He thinks Braymer has a lot to sell to people who feel rootless.  "What I
like is the friendships.  It's a very healing place and y ou can't put a
dollar value on that.  I've lived in $500,000 houses where you don't know
your neighbors."

Dean likes being able to go to the coffee shop next door and talk about
philosophy with a farmer.  He likes being able to work to make a difference
in the life of a small town.  He's amazed at the quality of the school
system and the overall quality of life.  "No, you can't run to McDonalds
every night.  You have to cook.  But the school system here is incredible.
 It has a nice faculty, a top-notch staff and a good school board.  The kids
are expected to behave and are raised to show respect to adults and each
other.  It's just a healthy place to raise kids."  He brings his own kids
here as often as possible.

"We don't have gangs or car-jackings." he continues, "But we do have lower
divorce rates and neighbors who bring you pies.  I've been out and seen the
world and I know oit's nothing to write home about.  Just more people, more
activity and more problems.  Give me the country any day."

Besides his push to get more computers in the Braymer school, Hughson
frequently invites people in for "Simple Food for Simple Folk", an intimate
gathering of local thinkers.  He'll cook a pot of chili or pasta, serve it
with a diet soda and keep the conversation flowing about what can be done to
promote and improve Braymer.  He's helped start a local investment club,
just for the fun of playing the stock market, and would lover to set up a
cultural lecture series.

Small town life is not a complete bed of roses, admits Hughson.  "The
downside is the defeatist attitude.  People here think they're missing out
on something in the outside world.  They're not."

The small town philanthropist says things change slowly in the country. "But
the good things that are good don't go away and things that need to be
changed do change eventually."

Small town residents tend to criticize and even condemn people like Hughson
for their unorthodox methods and the way they want to move in and change
things.  But there's room for do-good eccentrics, according to Hughson.  He
likens himself to the 'strange uncle who came back from the war kinda batty
and stayed in the attic all the time.  People just accept it and go."

If he can, Dean Hughson will stay in his own 'attic' and quietly attempt to
do the things he believes in.

"I'm expecting big things in Braymer.  And when I'm 85, I'll still be buying
green bananas and waiting for them to ripen."