My Green Thumb

My Green Thumb
J. Glenn Eugster
August 7, 2006

Since 1976, when I joined the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, I have worked with the Bureau, the Heritage Recreation Conservation Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Park Service where I am employed now.

Prior to joining the “feds” I worked parts of eight years with Athens-Clarke and Fulton County Planning Commissions in GA, a private land development firm in Atlanta, the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources, NJ’s Office of Coastal Zone Management, the Bucks County Planning Commission, and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and on a variety of part-time and consulting projects.

The path that led me to my 38 year career included a college education at the State University of New York at Cobleskill, the University of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts.

Thomas Merton, one of the foremost spiritual thinkers of the 20th century, once wrote that “A man is known, then, by his end. He is also known by his beginning. And if you wish to know him as he is at any given moment, find how far he is from his beginning and how near to his end”. Where I am today, according to the words of Merton, starts with the gift of being and with the capacities that God has given me. It will continue to be influenced by the actions of others around me, by the events of the world in which I live, and by the character of our society.

Although my education has been shaped by leaders such as Professor Jack Ingles of Cobleskill’s Plant Science Program, Dean Hubert Owens of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design, and Professor Ian McHarg, Chairman of the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Program at the University of Pennsylvania, my interest in my work was influenced by my parents. Josephine and Joseph Eugster, were the persons that introduced me to nature, the environment, culture and landscape design. Through their lifestyle, life-choices and work “Jay” and “Joe” taught me about gardens, landscaping, scenery, and the landscapes where people and nature come together.

We lived in Southern California, in orange groves near Fontana and in suburban and rural landscapes in Greenvale and Laurel on Long Island in New York. My interest and work in ornamental horticulture, landscape architecture, and regional and ecological planning evolved from the places we lived, the experiences my parents shared with me, and the activities I participated in.

We lived in suburban and rural landscapes within intimate nurseries and orchards, next to open and fragrant farms, near always changing salt marshes, along dynamic tidal streams and next to a Bay full of life and mystery. We had plentiful flower and vegetable gardens and landscaped our properties with function and creativity. As child I sold my family’s vegetables in a small red wagon to our neighbors, and fished for snappers, blowfish, hard and soft-shell crabs, porgies, flounder and striped bass from boats and the shore.

My mother, Jay, was born in Roslyn, NY the 3rd of six children of Anthony and Josephine Stazweski. My grandparents emigrated separately from Poland when they were in their teens, met in New York, and married. My mother’s parents were from a farming region in Poland along the Russian border and farms, gardens, flowers were always a part of their life when they settled in Greenvale, New York. Although my grandfather died a young man it wasn’t unusual for him and my grandmother, as well as some of the older children, to spend long hours working in the farm fields not far from where they lived.

My Mom joined the military service after she graduated from high school, traveled to the southern and western parts of the US, and eventually returned to Greenvale. She worked briefly for the Winston Guest Family on their estates in NY and FL, studied to be a dietician, before meeting and marrying my father and moving to California in 1947.

My father, one of two children, came from St. Gallens, Switzerland as a youth. His parents, Joseph and Johanna, were dairy farmers in Switzerland and they came to the US through Ellis Island, New York in the 1930’s. They first settled in Northern New Jersey and worked on a dairy farm. As they established themselves in America they were able to move to Westbury, New York where they ran a boarding house across from the Roosevelt Racetrack. My grandfather, Joe Sr., went from working on a dairy farm to delivering milk for the One Oak Dairy in Westbury.

My Dad went into military service after he graduated from high school, worked for a local fire department when we moved to California, and took a job with HC Bohack Foods when we came back to NY in 1950. Bohack was one of the early super markets in NY and the job presented my father with the lure of a new career opportunity.

In the Bohack stores in Glen Cove, Southold, Shelter Island, and Mattituck, New York he held a variety of jobs including Clerk and Produce Manager. He would work for Bohack from the early 1950’s until the 1970’s. Although Bohack was a good place to work the job never really reflected his true interests or who he was. The responsibilities of a wife, two children, and a mortgage gave the paycheck priority over his real dreams.

While my father worked in Bohack he always worked second jobs to earn more money for the family. His side work typically involved doing grounds maintenance for landowners and landscape construction work for local companies near where we lived. He was quite knowledgeable and skilled with lawns, plants, shrubs and trees, and was sought-out by many individuals and companies for his services. He was hardworking, dependable, provided quality services, probably at a cheaper rate than he should have been.

The part-time jobs my father worked on always involved special places. His work with landscape companies often had my father planting sod, shrubs and trees on NY State Parks along the Great Peconic Bay, Long Island Sound or Atlantic Ocean. When he worked independently he normally was hired by large landowners with beautiful properties. He seemed to enjoy working outside in beautiful landscapes and was comfortable operating power equipment or working with a shovel or rake. He wasn’t afraid of hard work and often pushed himself to complete projects as quickly as possible.

My father was able to use his supermarket and landscaping jobs to create opportunities for me to work after school and during summer vacations. My father routinely brought me a variety of part-time jobs to earn money and gain experience. I regularly shoveled snow, raked leaves, mowed grass, and cleared brush for many of my father’s clients. Periodically I would be hired by a landscape company to plant sod, beach grass, shrubs and trees. My father also managed to get me a summer job one year working in the Southold Bohack as a clerk stocking shelves and bagging at the checkout.

One of the periods that I found to be most interesting, and influential, was when my father was the Produce Manager for the Bohack in Southold. In that position he was in-charge of the section of the supermarket that sold fresh fruit and vegetables. His job involved ordering, displaying and selling fruit and vegetables. Southold was a service area for a part of the North Fork of Long Island, a largely agricultural region bordered by Peconic Bay to the south and Long Island Sound to the north. The people he served were either year-round or summer residents and they were sophisticated, successful folks that knew quality and sought it out.

My father was serious about his job and took pride in the quality of his work, service and product. He seemed to believe that the individual sets the standard for the quality of the work that we do rather than the organization or the job standard. He seemed to believe that if you do something you should do it very well. His work in the produce department illustrated his standard of quality. He would select fruit and vegetables with care and creativity, setting them out on display so that they would attract and motivate his customers. He would select common fruit and vegetables of quality as well as unique offerings from places afar.

He would rise very early each morning, shave, shower and drive the 19 mile route from Laurel to Southold stopping for coffee to go and his morning newspaper in Mattituck. Coffee and newspapers were essential parts of the commute and he would leave enough time each day so that he could make his stop, drink his coffee and read the sports section of the paper before he started work. Sports were a prominent interest of my fathers and he would always check the scores to find out how his favorite teams, such as the San Francisco Giants, New York Giants, and New York Knickerbockers had done.

He was 6’3” tall and weighed about 185 pounds. He dressed each day with a uniform-type of style that included black shoes, khaki pants, a white dress shirts and a bow tie. The pants and shirts were always clean and pressed sharply by my mother. He wore his black hair short in a flat-top, brush-cut that made him look younger than his years and quite handsome. More importantly he was a shy but friendly man who always shared a smile and hello with friends and strangers.

Although his life passion might have been somewhere else Joe Eugster was a good ambassador for Bohack and an excellent Produce Manager. He took pride in the fruit and vegetables he offered his customers, was knowledgeable about the different varieties, and was quick to offer assistance and advice, and willing to interact with them as they shopped. Young and old shoppers, whether cooperative or difficult, seemed to respond well to this tall, friendly, and helpful man. As I occasionally watched my father work he seemed to enjoy selling fruit and vegetables to people that knew quality.

My father’s workday, with the commute, was anywhere from 10 to 14 hours. He believed in getting an early start and was willing to put in extra time. During each day he would take a 10-15 minute break in the morning and the afternoon for a cigarette. His lunch hour was usually with one or more of his co-workers and they would get fresh bread, cold-cuts, vegetables and fruit from the store and take one of their cars to a road ending that overlooked one of the small tidal streams that linked to the Peconic Bay. His sandwiches always featured fresh hard rolls, thinly slice cheeses and cold-cuts, and some type of vegetable from his produce stand and pieces of Bermuda onion or avocado would make a typical sandwich into something very special.

Lunch hour conversation often featured sports and my father and his co-worker(s) would typically discuss professional baseball or football or local high school sports. On occasion the conversation would be about customers, especially women, or unrest between the workforce and Bohack’s management. The conversation would vary depending on who joined my father and some days the conversation included talk about Roger Foster’s ability to make a hook shot in basketball, Cliff Scholl’s extensive jazz phonographic record collection, or the scholastic or athletic accomplishments of one or more of the summer employees.

On the occasions when I was invited to join my father and one of his co-workers I was treated to good food and the opportunity to listen to savvy conversation between good friends about sports and life on the North Fork.

Once I left for college my father left Bohack, stopped working on landscape and grounds maintenance projects, and he took a job working as a sheet metal technician for Grumman and Boeing Aircraft in Calverton, New York and St. Augustine, Florida . He seemed to truly enjoy the combination of design and implementation and the salary and benefits of working with the defense industry were much more profitable than super markets and landscape construction companies. He worked at Boeing until he died of lung cancer in 1989.

As I look back now on where I have been, where I am, and how I got here, it is easy to see the influence that my family has had on my career.

My father’s influence follows me each day like a friendly cat. For nearly forty-years now I rise each day at 5:00 am, leaving time for coffee, the sports pages, and many of the scores from my favorite teams. I drive five miles to my job early enough each day so that I can prepare for the work that I do. Although I don’t wear a flat-top haircut any longer I do regularly wear khaki pants, a white shirt and a tie. I make a point to say hello with a smile to anyone I pass or meet. When I can I try to connect with the people I serve make their involvement with our agency pleasant. I think of myself as an ambassador of NPS and most days most people would agree that I am a good one.

I work for the federal government in a regional office of the National Park Service providing services to our park and regional office program managers and the public we serve.

My work in public service has focused on management, planning, research, fundraising and donations related to natural areas, parks, open space, recreation areas and tree-planting. It includes working on special places, such as parks and unique landscapes in the US and other countries. More often than not it involves working with the residents and visitors—including people and other living resources, to these places. All of these people and living resources are sophisticated and in search of ways to succeed and quality services to help them seize opportunities or solve problems.

I try to do a good job at what I do. My father taught me that the work we do belongs to us. No matter who we work for, or with, we determine how and when it gets done. His interest in quality over forty-years ago resonates with me today more than ever.

Actor Laurence Fisburne once said, “We’re in a period where mediocrity rules the day. There’s a lot of stuff that is not good that’s touted as being good”. My father would bristle at such a comment and he wouldn’t enjoy the lack of quality we often see today in our stores, government, public lands, and customer services. He would surely buck the trend and continue to set his own standards of service and quality.

Most of my workdays are longer than shorter. I cherish my time for lunch and will often walk to a bench overlooking the Potomac River where I can read the sports pages over a homemade sandwich and a piece of fresh fruit. Unfortunately my sandwiches will never rival my father’s but I haven’t given up trying to find that special combination of ingredients that he brought together each day.

My work is my passion and most days there isn’t anything else I would rather do. The career path I have taken has been one of design and discovery. My parents introduced me to nature, the land, and working with both. Where they were from, the work they did, the places we lived, and the jobs they encouraged me to take, gave me experience, perspective, and some of the skills and character traits I’ve needed to succeed. Most of all they showed me the beauty and enjoyment of plants, people and the land, and the satisfaction of hard work and a job well done.