Tim Thomas, a walking tour, the philosophy of Ed Ricketts, and literary layers/levels

Tim Thomas in from the of the Sardine Hopper on the Hopkins Marine Lab grounds

As we continue our transition from "the valley to the sea," Tim Thomas, a local Monterey fishing industry fixture and the former curator of the Monterey Maritime Museum, gave the group a stimulating lecture this morning. "Fishing for History" was the title of Tim's presentation and his wardrobe did not disappoint:

Fish in a holster!

Tim provided us with a true historian's chronology of events in Monterey... from the origins of the coastal Carmel and Monterey area Rumsen Native American tribe to the influx of Chinese, Italian, and Japanese workers who immigrated to the area to labor in the railroad, fishing, diving, and canning industries, the talk was as stimulating as it was full of entertaining anecdotes presumably gathered while Tim was working on research for his books The Japanese on the Monterey Peninsula and Monterey's Waterfront. For any of you interested in the content of the lecture, I found a great representation of what we heard today on YouTube: Tim Thomas Monterey Bay Fishing History Lecture.

Lee Chong, a fictional character from John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row, was partly based on a successful Chinese businessman who made his fortune not only as a retailer / proprietor of a general store ("Wing Chong" grocery, which translates to "beautiful prosperous" in Cantonese), but also as an exporter of dried squid (to China). The squid drying process was an olfactory nightmare... literally, mountains of dried squid were heaped on piles (squid mountains...delicious!) and laid out to dehydrate prior to shipping.

Mountains of Squid...

As the talk commenced, we learned about the Monterey whaling industry, the Japanese abalone free-divers (called Ama), and we heard some really entertaining anecdotes. Tim recounted the story of "the last" major abalone diver, a Japanese-American man named Roy Hattori. Roy apparently found himself 30 feet below the surface during a morning dive (this was a full suit with air line, lead boots, and the old school deep-sea diver attire) when a piece of debris was picked up by the current and jettisoned into his helmet's glass porthole. The porthole cracked, and water began to seep in his mask... knowing the difficulty of returning to the surface in a hurry, Roy improvised. Reaching down to the abalone (abalone could be described as giant sea snails...) he had just pried from a rock bed, Roy slapped the giant suction-cup foot of the snail over the porthole of his helmet, plugging the leak and allowing him ample time to return to the surface for repairs. Ha! Coincidentally, the site that published Tim's history lecture also has an interview with Roy: Roy Hattori Story.

At this point, we were led around Cannery Row while Tim made connections with some of the remaining historic properties... one being Ed Rickett's residence, Pacific Biological Laboratories. Tomorrow, we will be taking an in-depth tour of the property, so I will hold off on any discussion of that until then.

When our tour concluded, we adjourned for a lunch break and then returned to attend a lecture proctored by Gilly. We briefly discussed some of our intertidal zone findings from our oceanic exploration the day prior. After an interesting and illuminating review of "phylums" found within the intertidal, we talked about Conus Californicus, a predatory sea-snail (that incidentally fires hypodermic needles full of neurotoxins at its prey! Yikes!), and reviewed Ed Rickett's unique philosophy of ecology (Ed's famous tome Between Pacific Tides was apparently widely criticized by some of his scientific contemporaries because of its innovative/unusual classification of flora and fauna). Susan wrapped up the lecture with an introduction to her notion of Steinbeck's literary "levels," something she explored in depth in an upcoming publication (and we may get a copy!). Steinbeck often commented that his novels and stories contained several layers or levels, and Susan distilled these into five succinct categories:

1) Details (yellow shoes from Grapes)
2) Associations (the shift from "I to We" in Grapes)
3) Histories (references to culture)
4) Universals (bibilical references, language, niche roles)
5) Emergence, Possibility, and Growth (seed dispersal chapter / Rose of Sharon and the ambiguous ending of Grapes)

This breakdown could easily lend itself to being used in a classroom for creative writing or literary analysis purposes.

Gilly and Shilly at the Ed Rickett's memorial site... with a can of "Acme" beer... Steinbeck and Rickett's favorite!

Tomorrow we head to Doc's lab!