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Celebrating author John Steinbeck 11 | Thursday, March 6, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com L ast Thursday was John Steinbeck's birthday. Now, don't beat yourself up if you forgot to buy him something special to commemorate the Guest Contributor occasion. While the celebrated writer would have indeed turned 112, he actually departed this planet more than 45 years ago. Still, for someone who has idolized the author since discovering his work so many years ago, it was wonderful to see a slew of stories -- and a "Google Doodle," no less -- grandly marking the occasion of his birth. Far from being forgotten, Steinbeck rightfully remains a literary giant and his considerable legacy only continues to grow. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. As a writer, he would capture both Pulitzer and Nobel prizes in honour of his excellence and output, some 27 books of both ction and non- ction. Not bad for a college dropout. Most of his writing is based in the Depression era and set in his birth state. When I was a wee lad, I fell in love with California. Rather, I fell in love with the serene, sun-surf-sand California illusion I was spoon-fed via Hollywood and all those infectious fun Beach Boy records in my sister's collection. This super-sanitized version of The Golden State was the California of my dreams and of all my planned escapes. That's Life Andy Juniper Expert service always comes standard. State Farm® prides itself on unmatched customer service, decades of experience and one of the world's largest claims teams. And that's just the basic package. Get to a better State®. Get State Farm. CONTACT A STATE FARM AGENT TODAY. Steinbeck's California At some point in high school, I was introduced to Steinbeck's California that, although nonetheless compelling, was the polar opposite of anything I'd ever imagined in all my `California dreamin'.' Steinbeck's California was gritty, oftentimes wretched, rugged and always real. I read his classics, including East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men. But it was Cannery Row, a simple, sleek slice of perfect prose rst published in January 1945, that made me the Steinbeck devotee I am today. Cannery Row was Steinbeck's California, the area where he grew up and that most in uenced him. It was a street in the Monterey of his youth that was lined with sardine canneries and inhabited by the earnest, the unemployed, the affable and the irascible, by the likes of Doc, a marine biologist, grocer Lee Chong, Dora Flood, owner of the Bear Flag Restaurant, and Mack and the boys, a group of well-intentioned drunks and derelicts. Cannery Row opens, beautifully enough, with the author painting a picture and ensnaring a reader. "Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and the scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and ophouses...," reads the novel's prologue. Every now and then I return to Cannery Row for a reread that leaves me once again humbled and in awe. And on cold winter nights, when the Polar Vortex frostquakes our souls, my wife and I plot our return to Cannery Row -- the area now memorialized in sun-splashed Monterey. -- Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook www.facebook.com, or followed on Twitter at www.twitter .com/thesportjesters. Darryl R Demille Ins Agcy Ltd Darryl Demille CFP 905-842-1020 www.darryldemille.ca Andrew J Heideman 905-829-0018 www.andrewheideman.ca Angelo Gualtieri 905-257-7773 www.angelogualtieri.com Bartucci Ins and Fin Svcs Inc Deborah Bartucci 905-337-3276 www.autoinsuranceoakville.ca Stephen Ostapchuk 905-238-5643 www.stephenostapchuk.ca Stacey Sutherland 905-339-3276 www.insuranceinoakville.com Grant Leslie 905-469-4499 www.grantleslie.ca Michelle Cooper Ins and Fin Sv Michelle Cooper CFP 905-826-4900 www.michellecooper.ca Daniel Durst 905-847-1898 www.danieldurst.com statefarm.ca® 1401019CN State Farm, Canadian Head Office, Aurora, Ontario