Summering in Winter
I know it’s not yet summer and that we are still two months away from calendar summer, but we have had enough 80-degree days so far this year and that causes me to call this functional summer. We are on our trip up to Mendocino for a few days, spending our first night on Moonstone Beach. Mark Twain is attributed with having said that the coldest winter he ever spent was a winter in San Francisco. But a quick review of quotations shows that Twain’s reference to that comment came in a letter long after the first use of the phrase. That phrase is instead the work of Sir James Quin of England (made in reference to Paris), whom Twain read extensively while on vacation one cold and dreary summer in Paris. To his credit, Twain, who was always being tagged with witticisms that were not of his making, never tried to take credit for the comment. Now this all comes to mind as I sit in Cambria on April 20th under a slow and cold mist.
I am so attuned to summer that when we left our hilltop yesterday I started the day wearing shorts and t-shirt, but at least had the good sense to change to long pants before departing. I had intended and even declared that I would be taking my Polartek vest for the chilly mornings and evening of the trip, particularly when we get up north. And of course I completely forgot it. When I awoke this morning on Moonstone Beach I was surprised at just how cold it was. Between the temperature and a light misting rain, I was feeling particularly frigid. So I set out for Cambria, a mile or two away, to fill the gas tank, but also to see if any warm clothing could be found to fit me at that early hour. The only thing open at 7am was the gas station m town and its minimart. As opposed to just every brand of sweet and salty snacks and beverage known to man, this minimart had a full array of tourist ware, including a full selection of t-shirts, sweatshirts and yes, fleece jackets. The problem was size and quality, which are more correlated than not. I settled on a fleece jacket that at least seemed somewhat familiar even though two sizes smaller than I needed even though it declared itself to be a XXL size.
I threw the fleece into the back seat and am assuming that the trick might be to wear the fleece under my shirt where the sausage casing it represented would not make me look so buffoonish. We will have to see how that works out for me over the next few days up in Mendocino. Based on our patio dining tonight here in the warmth of Sonoma, I suspect I’m in for some trouble. In a word, it was cold. We’re not talking about freezing weather, just mid-40’s, which is certainly cool enough to make me shiver during a sociable dinner and keep me moving back and forth to the point of distraction.
Now it so happens that I am watching a documentary on Ernest Shackleton and his last voyage to Antarctica on the Endurance. It’s hard to muster much sympathy about being chilly during dinner when one sees a story about being frozen into the Antarctic ice-pack for a full year. But after just one evening, I am now certain that this is a problem I will need to address. Kim brought several jackets including a quilted vest and she reckons she will need to buy something warmer in Mendocino. I’m sure that will work for her, but I am entirely uncertain that even a better store in Mendocino will carry a size that is sufficient for my substantial girth. The ignominy of having to ask about what the largest size they carry would be and then needing to try things on for size does not thrill me.
I am reminded of a scene from Tommy Boy with Chris Farley when he tries to cheer up David Spade by putting on the smaller man’s jacket. He is trying to get a smile or a laugh out of him and he sways back and forth singing, “Fat guy in a little coat, fat guy in a little coat….” This is universally funny and as much as I laughed when Chris Farley did it, it is not something I will find as funny if I have to do it in one store after another. I’m thinking I may need to find a Sears store or Walmart where I am sure to find bigger sizes albeit at the added cost to quality (a trade-off I am good and ready to accept for this temporary purpose.)
I do think these sorts of problems plague people of normal size. These people can buy clothing anywhere and just need to decide on color and style. They might even find it easy to borrow something that will get them through their temporary dilemma. Neither of these solutions work for me, which is why I am usually much more conscious of my travel kit. If my luggage is lost, I might as well go home. Finding something that fits is no minor feat for me.
So, I am here facing a chilling trip up the coast. Speaking of chilling, this also turns out to be a trip that will have us encountering two locations that were used for the filming of two of the most noteworthy films by famed director Alfred Hitchcock. The first we saw yesterday in a little town south of Salinas (famed home of Nobel laureate John Steinbeck and the “salad bowl” of California) called San Juan Bautista. The town is named after famed Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza who led the expedition from Mexico to the Presidio of Monterey and San Francisco Bay in1775. In commemoration, a Mission was built on this site adjacent to what was called the Camino Real or the King’s Road (specifically for King Carlos III of Spain). It was at this Mission that Jimmy Stewart watched the illusive and comely Kim Novak jump to her death from the bell tower in perhaps Hitchcock’s best movie, Vertigo.
Today we will head up to Bodega Bay and the site of another Hitchcock film (perhaps the best known one to the population at large) called The Birds. In that film, Tippi Hedren, is chasing Rod Taylor across the landscape and encounters a strange and unexplained phenomenon where the local birds all sit in wait to attack the humans of the town. It is classic Hitchcock drama that is as bone-chilling as any coastal fog that shrouds the Northern California town.
I have a suspicion that I will need all the fleece with which I can clad myself. Why is it that both Mark Twain and Alfred Hitchcock spent so much of their creative careers focused on this mystical area around San Francisco Bay? This is an area of much intrigue. This was the city of the infamous earthquake of 1906 that destroyed much of the City. It is where Lorne Greene would send Hoss and Little Joe of Bonanza fame to learn the ways of the world.. It is the center of much of the Chinese immigration as far back as 1840 when they came to lay railroad tracks, mine gold and develop agriculture in the rich nearby valleys. And, of course, it is the site of the advancement in silicon-based technological development that forms the center of our new digital lives. Few areas can boast more impact on the world than this fog-shrouded area where we find ourselves summering in winter during this springtime reawakening from our long COVID sleep.