The Popcorn Stand: Margaret Hughes, Unbroken

This is another true story. As I’ve written a number of times before as I become older I’m losing more and more people who meant a great deal to me in my life. So I always refer to one of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies “Brian’s Song” when Jack Warden quote Ernest Hemingway, saying “Every true story ends in death. This is a true story.”

This is a true story.

Margaret Hughes was another person who touched my life. Admittedly I really knew her through her husband, Marvin, who I had a lot more contact with as I was growing up. Marvin and my dad coached Babe Ruth baseball together and coached a Strathmore all-star baseball team together to a title at the Dinuba Tournament. I was the bat boy.

I went to high school with their children Doug and Susie and graduated with Doug, who sadly passed away some time ago.

My time with Margaret was limited but as Jerry Hall led everyone at her service at Hillcrest Cemetery on Thursday in the singing of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” I though what an appropriate song. Because the first thought that came to my mind was that Margaret was unbroken.

Anyone who knows Margaret would understandably think that’s an odd thought to have about Margaret.

Because as anyone who has come into contact with Margaret knows she was in a serious traffic collision in 2011 that left her in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

But somehow, someway, Margaret and Marvin carried on with their lives pretty much just as they had always done. Sure Marvin and Margaret received their share of help, of course, considering all the people who loved them.

Magaret and Marvin reminded me of another Biblical character, Daniel, in the way they conducted themselves. To make the story of Daniel extremely short, the high muckety mucks of the time challenged Daniel’s authority to pray to the point of death.

So what did Daniel do? He just kept doing what he had always done. Open his window and pray and let the consequences be what they may.

That’s pretty much what Marvin and Margaret did after Margaret was left in a wheelchair. That’s why I say Margaret was unbroken.

Marvin and Margaret could have easily retreated to a shell, kept private and stopped going out in public, which would have been understandable. But they didn’t do that.

What did they do? They did what Daniel did and that’s what they always did. They continued to go to all the Strathmore High, Porterville College and Fresno State basketball games just like they did before.

Without any fanfare. Without bringing attention to themselves. Oh sure plenty of people would come up to greet them during the games.

That’s what I remember most about Marvin and Margaret when I covered games for The Recorder that they attended.

Actually that’s not true. What I remember most about those games as it was easy to see the devotion Marvin had for Margaret as he sat there watching the games with her.

I also remember Marvin demonstrating that devotion when I visited Marvin and Margaret with my father late in his life. My father had come to visit me and he made sure to tell me one of the things we had to do was go visit Marvin and Margaret.

I also remember as a kid we all went to a California Angels game during Rance Mulliniks rooking season in 1977. I remember Margaret was riding in the car with us and thinking, “hey, she’s actually pretty nice.”

That trip was just one demonstration of the devotion the Hughes and my family had to this area because it was their home. The Hughes kept going to Strathmore games long after Doug and Susie were out of high school.

And we went to watch Rance play for the Angels. Because he was one of us.

And Margaret was one of us. And she was definitely unbroken.