Three caught my attention. The first was a position as gardener at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda. Years later I visited Bermuda, and while it is a pleasant moderate island and the Princess was a top quality hotel, I think I made the right decision to pass on this one.
The second was a similar position, but at an estate on Long Island. New York. This was the best paying opportunity, but salary was not a high priority. I passed on this, but often wondered what interesting acquaintances I could have crossed paths with, in the "Big Apple".
The third was a position as Manager of a landscape company in New Glasgow. Nova Scotia. (100 miles from Halifax) The owners son was visiting U.K. at the time and asked if we could meet. I agreed and we met at Oundle. He had a friend with him, and they had the appearance of a couple of hippies, long hair, late teens, doing Europe. I always try to keep an open mind so entertained them and arranged for them to stay at the Ship Guest House for one night, where I knew Mrs, Newitt would take good care of them. I took them out for dinner, showed them some of my landscape projects and ran them out to see Stratford on Avon. ( Every N.American visitor has to see Stratford on Avon) It occurred to me the owner of the landscape company would be able to write off his son's trip to Europe if he was interviewing job applicants, over here.
Not surprisingly I was accepted and agreed to the modest salary of $5,600 a year. While I could earn that in a few weeks, double dipping in the tomatoe season in Leamington Ont, I sensed a new challenge with this
opportunity.
So on Feb 28 1970, sporting my new look, the Sharpes drove me to Heathrow airport, to board a plane and start a new chapter.
Evergreen Landscaping was owned by a prominent local business man, Mr.Fraser who also owned a large insurance brokerage in the town of New Glasgow N.S. He had three sons, in their late teens and requiring a work opportunity to develop work ethics, a landscape company was launched, but previously lacked anyone with related expertise, in the organization.
I was permitted the use of a company truck, an International pick up and given an office, where I installed a drafting table and office equipment.
I wanted to inspect the equipment they had, but everything was snowed in and frozen up, so we could not open the storage area for a couple of months. Meantime I started setting up meetings with potential accounts and we ran ads, announcing my appointment.
By the time the season started, we had lots of work on the books. Mr Fraser was a well known and respected member of the community, so this was relatively easy. I also snagged some contracts by introducing more cost effective specifications.
Much of our work was landscape maintenance along with some construction. I brought some heavy equipment, to be able to take on some larger contracts. They already had a dump truck and trailer so we could transport the equipment ourselves. This allowed us to target nearby larger urban areas undergoing development.
How could I know the impact on the next 40 years, would result from me telling him to "Hop in"
His enthusiasm and charisma was quite endearing and not too hard on the eye either. Over the next few weeks we bonded naturally, leading to an enduring relationship.
Gary came from a large family. Three brothers and three sisters, with him in the middle. His father took off in the early years, leaving his Mum to scrape enough together to keep food on the table. A replacement Dad (George) managed to work his way into the mix, who liked to throw his weight around.
One day when I was visiting, George started slapping Gary around, so I had to jump up and restrain him with a bear hug, until he calmed down. I don,t believe he laid a hand on him again, but he did refer to me when I had left as a "Godamn Queer". I guess he was half right.
The odd weekend I would drive down to Halifax and book into the Nelson Hotel. I found a few of the gay haunts and made some casual acquaintances. One evening I was sitting with some friends in a gay/straight bar and this guy sent the waiter over to us to fix up our drinks. I recognized him as an horticultural supplier we dealt with. Guess I didn't go far enough away for my night out.
The Nova Scotia goverment where busy building tracks of low income housing in many towns, including New Glasgow. The local municipalities where responsible for landscaping. I became involved in a project and met with the officials, to prepare a quotation.
Most of the areas to be dealt with called for lawn areas, as is typical anywhere. But I took issue with their proposed installation procedures. All areas called for turf ( sod, as it is termed in N.America). I caught their interest when I explained the cost saving of carefully timed seeding as an alternative. This led to other opportunities, including replacement of large areas at a Canadian Forces Installation in Port Hawkesbury.
This is a little over an hour drive away, having to cross a causeway. During the execution of this contract, I met other useful contacts. One such person was a Jim Coady, a colourful friend of the mayor and owner of the restaurant where we often fueled up.
He had just completed a spectacular house and was looking for some impressive landscaping to complete the project. I presented some ideas which met with his approval and we negotiated a deal.
shows the size of the rocks
before embedding them in.
Gary and I, taking a break.
We had a couple of crews on landscape maintenance, with Gary, another guy (Laurey) and I, tackling the more demanding projects. I taught Laurey how to work the bulldozer and Gary how to drive the dump truck.
I decided it was time to get into a car, so brought a 1964 Chev impala for $450.00 This was a great car, huge as was the norm of those times, with all the latest toys and whistles. I love to drive anything, but this was a dream drive.
I rented a one bedroom furnished apartment in a nice part of the town, which came with a driveway parking spot for my baby.
Gary always had an eye for the young ladies. With his looks it is hard to imagine he would have much trouble connecting, but he felt his style was cramped with not having a set of wheels. If he caught me on a good day, I would lend him the Chevy for a date. To his credit, he took good care of it and always returned it when arranged.
Meantime I kept in touch with Ian Sharpe in the U.K. He decided he wanted to come visit so I arranged to meet him in New York. I asked Gary if he would like to see the big apple, the next photo answers that.
Having made the trip down with some time to spare, we took a boat ride around Ellis Island, where this shot was taken. This is the view millions of immigrants used to have as they entered the U.S. to clear immigration.
We then met Ian at the airport and drove the 1,200 miles back to N.S.
It was great to see Ian again and I enjoyed showing him around. He seemed to take quite a liking to Canada, so the seed was sown for his subsequent return in a few years with his new wife and baby boy. 40 years later he is still out there, near Winnipeg from where he calls me about once a month for a chat.
One day the Company accountant came to see me, with a big grin on his face. He was waving a balance sheet he had just prepared and announced Evergreen landscaping had finally made a profit.
Good news travels fast as I received a call from Dean's Landscaping in Halifax. This was the biggest landscape company East of Montreal. Apparently the horticultural supplier I ran into in the bar in Halifax, also supplies Dean's Landscaping. He had told them about this Englishman that came over and turned the company around in short order. They wanted to meet with me.
I drove down to Halifax and the two brothers that own the company showed me their facilities and some of the projects. They offered a very generous salary with benefits and assured me I would have full control of day to day operations.
I gave my notice to Evergreen, working out the agreed term and moved to Halifax. Things went fine for awhile. I could see so many areas where inefficiency was rampant and began to make changes.
We had a large maintenance contract with Halifax International Airport and a Canadian Forces facility, but I was discouraged from involvement, being told the crews out there where self sufficient. Not happy with the arrangement, I drove out to check it out and found army personal where performing the work, for which Deans where getting paid. Surprising what can be accomplished with a case of Scotch, but this did not fit into my criteria for acceptable business practices. This discovery led me to wonder about other activity and subsequently an early resignation.
I managed to secure a position as night supervisor of cleaning staff at the illustrious Scotia Hotel in Halifax. While it may sound mundane, it was quite interesting. I had five staff in the crew, women and men and we got along well. I took quite a shine to getting a shine on the fixtures in the lobby and other common areas.
But the salary was not sufficient to accumulate any savings and it was my intention to get together sufficient capitol to start my own landscape company.
The one place where I figured I could do that, was the nickel mines in Sudbury Ont.
Not that I fancy going down a mine, but that was the "Oil rig opportunity" of the day.