There wasn't much left of the sardine canning industry in Monterey, California, when I was stationed there in 1970. Most of the canneries were empty, but a few were being turned into tourist attractions. I was there two weeks ago, and now it's crowded with tourists and the Monterey Bay Aquarium is the biggest attraction in the area. I read Steinbeck's Cannery Row while I was living there, and the book brought alive all the history of the area to me. It's a shame that it's all gone.

One of the most interesting things about the sardine canneries in Monterey, was how they got the fish from the boats to the canneries. There were huge wooden hoppers anchored in the bay, and the hoppers were connected to the canneries by big tubes, maybe 8 inches in diameter. The boats would tie up to the boxes and dump their load of fish, and the cannery would suction all the fish in for processing. That method must have saved a lot of time and money.

Those big boxes were readily available in the 1970s. While I was waiting for my German class to begin at the Presidio of Monterey, I worked for three weeks building a garden on base, using one of those hoppers as a flower box. The man I worked for was a Steinbeckian character who had lots of stories to tell about Old Monterey.


Prospect Harbor, by the way, has one of the prettiest lighthouses in Maine. I suppose the real people will leave now that the cannery's closed, and the town will be taken over by tourists.

-Joe-