One of Truskot's stop-overs was Iran where he ventured as a Peace Corps volunteer. Iran, in fact, proved the inspirational source for many of his interests. He went there to teach English as a second language. "This was high desert country," Truskot recalled. As he approached the town of Ardestan, where he was to live, he was startled by its seeming desolation. "I looked out. I said, ÚThere's not a blade of grass around!'" he said. "Then this oasis, totally lush and green and full of fruit trees appeared." In Iran, he learned to speak Persian. He learned to cook Persian food. The language ability has faded somewhat. Not the cooking skills. "We were used to processed, packaged food," Truskot said. "There, you learn to cook from scratch. I spent a whole week learning the vocabulary of the kitchen."
Joe Truskot, executive director of Monterey Symphony, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran
From Ohio to Iran to Belize to Salinas, Joe Truskot finds a new interest at every turn
BY DAVE NORDSTRAND • dnordstrand@thecalifornian.com •
September 18, 2009
Caption: Joe Truskot, executive director of Monterey Symphony, trims one of his rose bushes Wednesday at his home in North Salinas. Gardening is among his many hobbies and passions. (Conner Jay)
He never had a boring day, but, if he did, Joe Truskot would be too busy to notice it.
"If you're not enjoying life, you'd better be doing something else," said Truskot, for 19 years the executive director of the Monterey Symphony.
Once his many interests, hobbies and demanding job are squeezed into life's narrow time frame, one realizes that Truskot has found exceptional, and even inspirational, ways to enrich and broaden the narrative.
As well as being a symphony's executive director, Truskot, 59, is a potter and a serious bridge player.
Music is his passion.
So is cooking Persian foods.
Today he speaks to the Salinas Woman's Club on "The Future of Music in Salinas."
Saturday, he judges roses at McShane's Nursery and talks to customers about "grooming blooms to win big at competitions." (The Salinas Valley Rose Celebration starts at 1:30 p.m. at McShane's, 115 Monterey-Salinas Highway.)
"My mother and aunt also taught me to do patchwork quilt tops," Truskot said.
All that and more.
A fanatic about roses
Truskot is at his home in north Salinas, out in his expansive rose garden.
He's wearing slacks, a garden-green knit shirt and a straw hat with a wide brim to shade his eyes in the slanting light of late day. Lounging nearby are his two cats, strays he adopted named Buddy and Freddy the Freeloader.
About him are blooms of white, pink, red, dark purple and yellow, each emitting its own heady fragrance.
Truskot's interest in gardening began when his grandmother showed him how to grow a bean in a paper cup.
Then followed lots of house plants.
"When I got out here in 1990, I lived in Monterey in apartments for two years," Truskot said. "My entire life I'd loved gardening, and somebody in the orchestra told me to look into Salinas.
"I realized I could own a house with a yard there."
In the first two months in his new house, he went "garden nuts," he said. He planted 250 rose bushes.
He made mistakes, naturally, and so connected with the Monterey Bay Rose Society.
From its members he learned which types of roses thrive in the cool coastal climate that enveloped his house.
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"For the past 11 years, I've edited the Rose Society's newsletter," Truskot said.
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Today, he has 160 types in his garden.
"Or maybe 159," he said. "I haven't checked recently."
From Ohio to oasis
Truskot's long and winding road to Salinas started in Lorain, Ohio, his hometown.
There, his father worked in a U.S. Steel plant and his mother was a beauty operator.
"Dad ran a crane," Truskot said. "He'd load new pipe onto railroad cars. He worked for 42 years, and he missed only 4 days.
"I thought that was the standard for people until I got to college and realized the world wasn't that dedicated."
One of Truskot's stop-overs was Iran where he ventured as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Iran, in fact, proved the inspirational source for many of his interests.
He went there to teach English as a second language.
"This was high desert country," Truskot recalled.
As he approached the town of Ardestan, where he was to live, he was startled by its seeming desolation.
"I looked out. I said, ÚThere's not a blade of grass around!'" he said. "Then this oasis, totally lush and green and full of fruit trees appeared."
Love of music develops
In Iran, he learned to speak Persian. He learned to cook Persian food.
The language ability has faded somewhat. Not the cooking skills.
"We were used to processed, packaged food," Truskot said. "There, you learn to cook from scratch. I spent a whole week learning the vocabulary of the kitchen."
His love of classical music took hold there, too. Only a few TV antennas stood on the mud houses. Only one radio station filled the arid airwaves.
Truskot had a couple of cassette tapes of symphonic music. Those he played again and again.
Today, he has 2,000 CDs, all cataloged and in reach for easy listening.
"I go to every symphony rehearsal, too," he said. "Not because I have to, but because I love the music."
He also worked in Belize with CARE, one of the world's largest relief organizations.
Life a rich patchwork
Inside his home, Truskot retrieves several quilts.
Using excess silk, or "end runs," from a local tie company, he fashions intricate and colorful patterns.
Truskot then hand-carries the quilts aboard a plane.
They go to the Amish in Berlin, Ohio, who, using intricate hand-stitching, apply the padded backing.
One 5-by-6-foot example contains 2,000 composed pieces.
Truskot does have cable service, but the TV is seldom on. Given all life has to offer, there's little time to idle in front of the tube.
Cooking, gardening, judging roses, music, cats, working, public speaking, quilting ...
There's only one down side to filling every second with activities you like to do, Truskot said.
"Life goes so quickly," he said.
