"Early morning is a time of magic in Cannery Row. In the gray time after the light has come and before the sun has risen, the Row seems to hang suspended out of time in a silvery light. The street lights go out, and the weeds are a brilliant green. The corrugated iron of the canneries glow with the pearly lucence of platinum or old pewter. No automobiles are running then. The street is silent of progress and business. And the rush and drag of the wave can be heard as they slash in among the piles of canneries. It is a time of great peace, a deserted time, a little era of rest"
Steinbeck, Cannery Row - a gem of a book