Which of the following men say one of their best jobs ever was in a bra company?

Was it body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger, empire builder Sam Walton or Marco homebuilder John Slocum?

It's our guy, our hometown home innovator, home creator, home pioneer in a way, John Slocum. Oh, about that bra factory reference, Slocum explained, "When I was 18, I was a fabric inspector at the Warner Brothers Bra Company in Connecticut. It was a cool job, with the women walking around in their underwear. Beautiful job, and fun."

Several years before that, Slocum first visited Naples with his father.

"We drove to Isles of Capri to Jim and Edie's and there was a three-bedroom house and a rental boat. I told Dad, 'Before I'm 30, I'll be living in Florida.' I didn't care what I'd be doing. It didn't matter."

He beat his deadline by three years and three years later, in 1974, opened Slocum Homes.

"We built 40 houses that first year, each 1,800 to 2,000 square feet, costing about $40,000 including a pool and landscaping. And we built each house in 50 days. Some of those houses still exist."

In 1985, Slocum joined forces with his present partner, Tom Christian.

The home building business today would be unrecognizable by someone who put up a few houses here in the 1970s and then left town. Marco changed as well as a place to live, to retire or to raise a family.

"What Deltona envisioned was for Marco to be a small, rural, low-key community, not the posh vacation-tourist area. When I came here, the average age of people I built homes for was 60 and up.

"Now, Marco is not an old-age place. Just look around at the parties you attend. I used to be one of the younger people at parties. Now I've become one of the old ones."

Slocum offers an example of those early days.

"When I moved to Marco my daughter Lisa was five. She used to roam the neighborhood, knocking on doors. She'd say, 'You got any kids?'"

Submitted photo

John Slocum at a home site.

Marco now has about 2,000 school-age children living here.

Ask Slocum how his business has changed and he offers a blizzard of facts.

• If the new houses are built correctly and to code, there's no possibility of major damage from storms. In 1974 home had eight inspections at the most. Today there are almost 80 inspections required.

• It takes 12 to 14 months minimum to build a large home, say 7,000 to 8,000 square feet under air, 14,000 square feet total with all the bells and whistles.

• The new big homes have complex electronics installed, geared for every conceivable electronic gadget. There's nothing an executive couldn't do in his house that he could do at his office.

• Something new is how we insulate the attic. It's put in the rafters, not in the ceiling. So the attic is 100 percent sealed. This insulation sprays on paper-thin, then expands to about eight inches thick, a thermal barrier.

• Look at the old Deltona houses. The outside decoration was called paint. Houses today have detail after detail.

• Some new homes have garages big enough for three, four or five cars, sometimes 25 feet high to allow cars on lifts or even room for mobile home parking.

I asked Slocum to look at some home-design trends on the way:

Submitted photo

John Slocum at the old Trails End motel in the 1960s as a teen.

"The heavy Tuscan look won't go away; it's been around for a thousand years. But we're going to see more simple outside décor, not stark contemporary but not so much old-world either. The heavy, castle-like dungeon feeling will be less popular ahead.

"We're moving toward bigger spaces, multi-use spaces, many more elevators and "sky lounges" up top (which some used to call widow's walks.)

Slocum is critical of many commercial buildings on Marco as "a detriment" to the island.

"They were built a long time ago with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. And the landscaping often is horrendous, terrible."

So, what does a man who has had impact on the look of Marco homes have planned for his own future here, or elsewhere? For Slocum, boats have a lot to do with it.

"I love boats and the water and have semi-gills on my body," he joked. He and his wife Judith are flat serious about his new boat.

"With our new 70-footer, we would love someday to travel five months a year. But Judith and I are blessed with many friends here and always will have a base here.

The slogan of Slocum-Christian home builders sums up John Slocum's attitude, "We begin building a house for a client and end up with a new friend."

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