It was 1999.  My marital separation was still fresh and raw.  The concept of the “d” word was still an unbelievable reality that loomed in my future.  I was briefly in California once again, far from my home on the Atlantic coast… and far from everyone who still loved me. 

I found myself on Cannery Row.  I only vaguely recalled Steinbeck’s Book (which I actually read before I acquired the maturity to appreciate it.)  More vivid in my mind was the 1982 movie with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. This depressed section of Monterey was the setting for what was supposed to be a romantic comedy about poorly matched lovers.  I could see mental snapshots of a much younger Nick Nolte as “Doc” who lived on “The Row” along with an assortment of mostly drunken, good-hearted characters.  It was the kind of movie that was perfect for Nick Nolte in his prime.  

It was hard to imagine that the star of the phenomenal television mini-series Rich Man Poor Man back in the mid ‘70s, Cannery Row and 48 Hours in 1982, was the same pathetic, broken actor that I saw in Hulk back in 2003.  Once upon a time, Nick Nolte was a credible leading man.  

"Suzie" was his love interest in the movie, played by Debra Winger.  "Suzie" was a feisty, drifter who could not make it as a prostitute because of her abrasive manner.  In the movie, she is a newcommer to the Row and soon forms a volatile kind of relationship with "Doc."  

Debra Winger was always one of my sentimental favorites beginning with Urban Cowboy, opposite a passably obnoxious John Travolta. To my mind, she made the movie. (Back in the day, imagine Debra Winger as the prototype for our modern day Anna Pacquin... but much bigger.  She had the same kind of sexy innocence that makes it easy to lose yourself.)  She was later featured in An Officer and a Gentleman with Richard Gere.  The lady was red hot at the time, coming out with ‘Gentleman’ first, and following it with Cannery Row in the same year.  The very next year she starred in Terms of Endearment, which was also an amazing movie.  Debra earned Academy Award nominations for both ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Endearment.’

 

I tried to find some small aspect of romance in my surroundings from this completely accidental encounter with Cannery Row.  I looked for recognizable scenes or land marks from the movie, but I found none.  I looked for evidence of what might have been the character and texture of “The Row” back in the day of the Steinbeck book.  (I really needed some texture back then.)  But it was a lost cause. 

The saddest part of that little California visit, was that I was more lonely than I had ever been in my life... and there I was seeking refuge in the ruins of a movie about some very lonely people. 

That night, I went looking for a Debra Winger movie at the local Blockbuster.  I think I watched Black Widow, which really wasn’t the same thing.