April 8, 2021:
Welcomed to town by Aladdin Bail Bonds, Diaz Brothers Bail Bonds, Tony Diaz Bail Bonds, and the Salvation Army store.
The Historic part of town and the National Steinbeck Center are in an altogether different neighborhood, financed by altogether different interests with a altogether different agendas.
Steinbeck didn't write about the Steinbeck side of town. Whitewashed, as it were. He wrote about the bail bonds side, the Salvation Army side. Those were his peeps.
That fact is altogether central to any understanding of either the town or of Steinbeck's writing.