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