BIG SUR

How I Fell in Love with California

We were living in Sydney in this house when the call at 3 am came through.

From my grandfather in Carmel, California, to which he had just retired from Greenwich, Connecticut.

‘No emergency, but it is time you visited us in California.’

We took the long way around via India, Italy, New York, the California Zephyr train and, finally, Carmel. I immediately fell in love with that California.

In that first trip in California there was a lot to fall in love with.

In my grandfather’s big house above the head of Carmel Valley, we had summer luncheons on the terrace. Given the times and their times, I was always with jacket and tie even when just the immediate family. No matter the temperature outside.

That is how it was.

When the day called for lunch at The Lodge at Pebble Beach, I was expected by my less socially secure (then my tycoon grandfather) to wear my Riverview School (Sydney) uniform.