| California, the State. San Francisco, the | | | | major canning companies would, by dint of |
| city. Monterey, the town. John Steinbeck, the | | | | financial muscle, bully their way into |
| author. For this Steinbeck fan, San Francisco | | | | ownership or control of all of the |
| is quite close to heaven. From San Francisco | | | | agricultural land in the area. Steinbeck was |
| it is an easy drive down the peninsula to | | | | right to be worried. For that is what has |
| Santa Cruz and into Steinbeck territory.I fly | | | | come to pass.Sad also to realize that the |
| into San Francisco airport late in the | | | | year 'Cannery Row' was published, 1945, was |
| afternoon. The signs are immediate America. | | | | the year the sardine fishing industry of |
| 'No Ped Xing', 'Squeeze right', 'Occupation | | | | Monterey died. As Steinbeck said at a later |
| by more than 132 persons unlawful'. From | | | | time: 'They are fishing for tourists now.' In |
| Rent-a-Wreck I collect a Chevrolet in two | | | | the heyday of Monterey there were eighteen |
| tones -- cat-sick green and vile yellow. A | | | | canneries, 100-odd fishing boats, 4,000 |
| veritable pimpmobile. And was it not in a car | | | | workers, three gaudy brothels and a terrible |
| like this I drove into San Francisco for the | | | | smell of dead fish. Now, nearly all are |
| 1967 Summer of Love, to follow Timothy | | | | gone.(It used to be that Monterey, and nearby |
| Leary's instructions to 'turn on, tune in, | | | | Salinas where he was born, was angry and |
| and drop out'? | | | | ashamed of John Steinbeck. In 1944, after the |
| | | | success of 'The Grapes of Wrath' Steinbeck |
| It was. And was it not in very much the same | | | | bought a house in Monterey; no one would rent |
| automobile I parked outside the City Lights | | | | him an office for writing. He was harassed |
| Bookstore and went in and listened to | | | | when trying to get fuel and wood from a local |
| Ginsberg recite 'Howl' and got Jack Kerouac | | | | wartime rations board. He wrote that his old |
| to sign my copy of 'The Dharma Bums'? It was. | | | | friends did not want him, partly because of |
| This antediluvian American monster is the car | | | | his works and partly because he was so |
| of my youth. Be damned to the characterless | | | | successful: 'This isn't my country anymore. |
| compacts of today. (It is a sad reflection on | | | | And it won't be until I am dead. It makes me |
| progress that the Rent-a-Wreck franchise now | | | | very sad.' He late wrote: 'After I had |
| rents modern compacts.)Now I drive across | | | | written "The Grapes of Wrath" . . . the |
| Highway 92 and its beguiling signs leading to | | | | librarians at the Salinas Public Library, who |
| San Jose along the Camino Real -- the Royal | | | | had known my folks remarked that is was lucky |
| Road. (Yes, I know the way to San Jose and a | | | | my parents were dead so that they did not |
| sterile, dreary city it is.)Swing on to | | | | have to suffer this shame.'In truth, the |
| Highway 1, America's very own Pacific | | | | whole American literary establishment should |
| Highway, which takes me down the peninsula | | | | fry in hell for their treatment of this |
| and along the coast, the rugged, rocky coast | | | | author. When Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize |
| on the right, the remains of cypress forests | | | | for literature in 1962 he was damned in |
| on my left - and goes through Santa Cruz to | | | | newspapers with faint praise. 'The New York |
| Monterey. Coming back, I will use Highway 9 | | | | Times' in particular should hang its head in |
| which is a backroad, in spite of the | | | | shame.)Now there is a National Steinbeck |
| grandiose title, and follow the San Lorenzo | | | | Center in Salinas, about 25 km inland from |
| river up, up into the Santa Cruz mountains | | | | Monterey. It is not for me. I am not of the |
| and then through the magnificence of | | | | school who thinks these things can be |
| California redwoods in the Henry Cowell | | | | packaged, tarted up, represented. Of itself |
| Redwoods State Park.If I have enough time, on | | | | the center says: 'Discover Steinbeck's works |
| the way back I will stop at Felton on Highway | | | | and philosophy through interactive, |
| 9 and ride on a steam train for an hour of | | | | multisensory exhibits for all ages and |
| nostalgia on the wondrously named Roaring | | | | backgrounds, priceless artifacts, |
| Camp and Big Trees narrow-gauge railway line. | | | | entertaining displays, educational programs |
| No railway line of my youth ever swooped | | | | and research archives. Seven themed theaters |
| through stands of redwoods; it is true that | | | | showcase "East of Eden", "Cannery Row", "Of |
| only God could have made these trees, one of | | | | Mice and Men", "The Grapes of Wrath" and much |
| which is within spit of being a hundred | | | | more.' That is not my scene.Yet we can still |
| meters tall.No train in the darkness of the | | | | see the old Cannery Row if we look with |
| Rhondda Valley in Wales puffed like the | | | | care.This morning I go to Foam Street, where |
| 'Little Red Engine' -- I think I can, I think | | | | the true Cannery Row starts. I stand silently |
| I can -- up one of the steepest railway | | | | on the stone pilings of the deserted loading |
| gradients in the world to Bear Mountain.But | | | | dock. A pleasant melancholy. It would have |
| that is on the morrow. Today is for blessed | | | | been better if I had delayed my visit by a |
| Monterey. Robert Louis Stevenson in | | | | couple of months. For this is the end of |
| travel-book mode wrote of Monterey in a | | | | summer and the weather is still too warm, too |
| fish-hook simile as being 'cosily ensconced | | | | pleasant for my mood. Cannery Row needs a |
| beside the barb'. (At the time Stevenson was | | | | touch of cold damp in the air for true dismal |
| skulking around Monterey, waiting for the | | | | authenticity. And it is wrong that I should |
| divorce of the light of his life, Fanny | | | | be here on a Saturday. Thursday, Sweet |
| Osbourne.) Much earlier than Stevenson, | | | | Thursday, is surely the only day to visit |
| Gaspar de Portola and the intrepid explorer | | | | Monterey. But how can we change a business |
| for God, Father Junipero Serra, claimed | | | | itinerary for literary requirements?Much in |
| Monterey for Spain and the Holy Catholic | | | | Monterey remains the same, much has changed. |
| Church by establishing a fort and a mission | | | | La Ida Cafe of blessed memory is now |
| in 1777. Now I claim it, yet again, for | | | | Kalisa's, down from my hotel at 851 Cannery |
| myself.The sea as I drive down the coast road | | | | Row. Wing Chong Market, at 835, has been |
| is white with rage and foam. A hurricane has | | | | transmogrified into the Old General Store and |
| been creating havoc at sea and in Mexico. | | | | the building that once held Doc Rickett's |
| This is the dying fringe of the storm. Waves | | | | Marine Lab still stands at 800 Cannery Row. |
| slam against the rocky coast and burst in | | | | Last time I was here it was a private club |
| white flags to mark the route ahead. I see no | | | | and I managed to smooth-talk my way in. This |
| sea lions or seals as I did last year. | | | | morning it seems sadly deserted and I am told |
| Perhaps the sea is too rough. Perhaps they | | | | it is owned by the city of Monterey and the |
| have a shelter where they hide from the big | | | | public is not welcome.Do not confuse this, |
| waves. Perhaps.I am staying at the Monterey | | | | the genuine article, with Doc Rickett's Lab, |
| Bay Inn simply because of its address, 242 | | | | which is a restaurant at 180 E Franklin |
| Cannery Row. From here, last night, I walked | | | | Street, and is not the sort of place Doc |
| past the appalling tourist mockery that is | | | | Rickett would have dined at, but didn't.When |
| Fisherman's Wharf -- what sins are committed | | | | I have finished writing, I will stroll down |
| for the tourist dollar -- and on to the | | | | to Sancho Panza for lunch. This restaurant is |
| Municipal Wharf at the end of Figuero Street. | | | | in an adobe building built in 1841 in Calle |
| This is where the real fishing fleet is | | | | Principal -- Main Street. There, in the |
| moored; where the buildings are designed for | | | | crowded, low-ceilinged room, I will drink |
| work, not tourist, and the pelicans stalk the | | | | Mexican Corona beer with slices of lime and |
| fish-smelling docks and landings. Pure | | | | eat chile con carne con frijoles and remember |
| Steinbeck.Last night I dreamed I was Doc | | | | John Steinbeck, the writer who gave me the |
| Rickett and that I still worked in my | | | | smell, the feel, the reality of Monterey when |
| laboratory among the wonderful desperates of | | | | I was a small boy in Wales.Gareth Powell |
| 'Cannery Row'. This morning, over breakfast, | | | | runs, among other sites, Travel Hopefully - |
| I consider sadly the strong moral purpose | | | | - and has been a travel writer and editor for |
| that ran through all of John Steinbeck's | | | | far too long. |
| 'Cannery Row' novels. He was worried the | | | | |