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