American Made Essay #3 "Grassroots Nantucket: America the Beautiful"

By Maureen Steele, American Made Foundation Board Member

Grassroots Nantucket: America the Beautiful
I returned to the place I used to call home for “Christmas Stroll”. Nantucket has long held a special place in my heart and many of my family's dearest friends and fondest memories reside there.

The “Gray Lady”, as the island has been dubbed for the fog that veils her, often till 11am, isn’t the home to the rich and famous as many believe. No. The islanders themselves are a different breed from the “Summer People”, those wealthy and beautiful that fly in on their private wings of privilege or blow in riding the breeze of luxury sails.

The islanders, the hearty lot that resides on- island year round are primarily blue collar workers: fishing, building, cleaning, caretaking, mowing and planting. The island is easy on the eyes no matter the time of year. Every yard, every street corner, every windswept dune makes one ache for the romantic. The landscape of the island is idyllic with a loveliness as soft as a rose petal. This beauty I realize, as I drive past landscape crew after landscape crew, isn't created by velvety comfort; it is born of work as hard as the granite shelf that holds the island itself.

I saw Ethan then. My best friend Jackie's eldest son, sitting in his truck, on the phone, directing, ordering, doing the things the owner of a busy landscape company does. I pulled over, and asked him if I could tag along.
He put the truck in gear and we spent the day en route from Miacomet to Sconset, Dionis to Surfside. The beauty of this magical island thirty miles out to sea makes my spirit wistful, and I pine for what it is I can’t quite articulate. As we drive and I listen to him handle his day to day with deliveries of mulch, inquiries for new jobs, I realize that much of the beauty that has moved me so, Ethan, and men just like him over generations are responsible for creating.
For landscapers like Ethan, beauty isn’t just a byproduct of their labor; it’s a mission. From the time he pushed his first mower as a kid, Ethan understood that hard work and beauty go hand in hand. Now, the head of a successful landscaping company, he knows that each flowerbed he tends and each lawn he trims brings comfort, peace, and a sense of home to others. In his work, Ethan and landscapers like him carry on an American tradition—the idea that beauty, no matter how humble, can transform the soul and offer solace to broken hearts.
Landscaping itself mirrors the ideals this country was built on. The transformation of raw, untamed land into something orderly, restful, and beautiful requires intention and care, values deeply woven into the American ethos. Our Founding Fathers shaped a nation with these same principles, carefully crafting walkways for future generations to follow. Landscapers do this on a smaller scale, creating spaces that serve as sanctuaries from the world’s chaos. They prove that the American Dream isn’t only about grand gestures or towering achievements; it can also be about the quiet pride of a job well done and the comfort that a beautiful place brings to weary eyes; the secret garden that provides a quiet sanctuary from a world gone mad.
So much of our American landscape has been molded by hands that may never be famous but are forever essential. Each worker who tends the land is shaping more than a backyard or a flowerbed; they’re leaving a legacy of beauty, resilience, and pride. They are cultivating the American Dream, proving every day that greatness can emerge from blades of grass and handfuls of soil. They teach us that beauty is transcendent, that it has the power to comfort, uplift, and remind us that even in our daily grind, we are part of something larger than ourselves.
Ethan’s story is a testament to the notion that hard work and beauty aren’t separate pursuits. In America, they walk hand in hand. This is the kind of patriotism that goes beyond flag-waving or speeches; it’s felt in the earth itself, in each stretch of green that flourishes under a landscaper’s care, in each yard transformed from the ordinary to the sublime.
In the transformative work of landscapers across our nation and in Ethan’s story, lies a reminder: that from the most humble of beginnings, from labor both strenuous and steadfast, we can all create a future worth standing on. We can all have a patch of land, a piece of peace, framed by a meticulous privet, grounded in principles that make this country great. And as we gaze upon these spaces of beauty, we’re reminded of the enduring truth that hard work and hope are still the path to greatness.
The pursuit of freedom is an endless journey, a timeless garden that must be nurtured year after year, so that the roots of our dreams grow deeper, all while knowing that when the fog lifts, the promise of tomorrow continues to bloom bright.

Maureen Steele’s passion for the written word is matched by her love of the country she roams. Her descriptive style has promoted and chronicled national movements, including The People’s Convoy where she also journeyed long miles in the cab of a big rig. Contact Maureen Steele of AMERICAN MADE on X @MaureenSteele_
or msteelepa@gmail.com

Third in a series of personal essays on hardworking Americans who proudly live and breathe freedom in their lives and their work.
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Contact Maureen Steele: maureensteelepa@gmail.com

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