10/17/89: Where were you then and how will you commemorate it?

1st or 2nd grade. I remember it well. I was watching some cartoons in the living room. I want to say it was the Road Runner, but I'm not sure.

 

I had just gone into my bedroom and was sitting on the floor right inside the door in front of my closet. I heard this noise and stood up, just then the quake hit. Stuff was falling out of my closet on my head so I stepped into the hallyway. Stuff came flying out of the hallway cabinet and I fell down the stairs. No joke. I grabbed the handrail and was bounced down the stairs step by step on my left hip and leg as the quake rolled through.

I probably won't do anything to commemorate the event.

 

I was having a soccer practice at springer park in Los Altos, and having fun being six years old. When the quake hit we all just dropped right there in the middle of the field, probably the safest place to be. I will commemorate it by finding out how barrett and goose did in the dc spurs friendly and then take 2 midterms.

 

I guess I should post this here as well as in the FFA ...

...

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area back then.

I was at my high school in San Rafael when the quake hit. Soccer practice had ended early and I was watching the end of a girls volleyball game. Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose. After some consternation the game continued and then as the magnitude (no pun intended) of the quake became apparent the headmaster decided that we ought to evacuate the (very old and it turns out earthquake unsafe) gym. My father soon arrived and we went home.

My mother works in Pacific Heights in San Francisco and could see the fires in the Marina District from her office. She waited until things settled down and returned home late in the evening.

One of the most vivid memories I have about that time was how I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and wandered into the kitchen to find my mother transfixed in front of the TV - just watching the aftermath. She'd been watching continuously and didn't sleep at all that night.

 

I can't believe how long its been.

I was in ballet class when the earthquake hit. I was awestruck with how the mirrors warped during the shaking.

Ironically, we had learned about earthquakes the day before in science class.

 

I was sneaking beer into my dorm (kids, do not try this at home) getting ready to watch the game....

turn on the telly and all of the insanity...

oddly enough, I was in NY at the time and now I live in Santa Cruz....

weird

 

Jeez, you're all a bunch of babies! I had just gotten home from work (worked at ESL for the DoD at that time) and was waiting for my wife and kid to get home, had just turned on the (world series) game, cracked a beer and....


PS: I didn't spill a drop!

 

You worked at English as a Second Language for the Department of Defense?

 

Actually, unfortunately, it was ESL in Sunnyvale, where about six months earlier Richard Farley had shot 7 people in building M-5 (where I worked). All in all, it was a real ************ed-up year!

 

I was in Belgium dining with Yves.

 

Honey, are you trying to tell me something? Did you go on a trip to europe and explore your gay roots?

 

I remember it like it was yesterday.

My family had only been in California (via Michigan, New Jersey, and Tennessee) for about 3 years and a handful of months. We lived in Santa Cruz. The only memorable earthquake we experienced since we arrived was a 4.0 quake that made us all literally burst into laughter with the weirdness of watching the walls move!

In the early afternoon of October 17th, I went to AAA to get car insurance for a car I just purchased. The AAA office was on the second floor of what seemed to me to be a very flimsy building in Capitola. It was like a two-story portable and you could feel the people walking around in the building. I mentioned to the agent that there would be no mistake if there was an earthquake because the building seemed to rattle so easily. We both hehe'd to each other...little did we know....

At about 4:45 that warm October afternoon my son, who was just 8 months old, had just awaken from an afternoon nap. I had him on my lap on the couch and I remember it was about 5:00 because the news was just coming on when I thought that I'd better get up and start making dinner. Usually I would lie him on the floor on a blanket with his toys while I made dinner in the kitchen. Just as I was lowering him to the floor, BAM!! It felt and sounded as though the city had been hit by a HUGE bomb!

Stunned and realizing it was a quake, I scooped up my son and zig-zagged, bumping into walls, down a short hall into the door frame of my bathroom in the center of the house. I jammed my feet against one side and my back against the other and put my son between my legs (it was the only way I could hold onto him). Once the violent jarring stopped and the rolling began I watched from my position in the bathroom one bedroom in my frontal vision rise what seemed to be about 6 feet while the living room in my posterior peripheral vision sank and then visa-versa. It was like slow-motion and seemed to last FOREVER!! I looked to my right and watched everything on my bathroom shelves over the commode fall into the open toilet bowl (I have kept the lid closed on my toilet ever since )

There was some serious slow-motion surreal happenings in my house that day! The 19 inch TV hit the living room floor where I had spread out the blanket to put my son. Thanks be to my laziness due to the heat that day in that I did not lay my son down ealier to start dinner...he would have been seriously hurt had he been lying in his spot. In the bathroom, I got bumped down to my butt on the floor with my feet and back still braced against the frame. I ended up with bruises on my inner thighs from holding onto my son, a huge bruise on my tailbone (OUCH!) and my legs and arms were sore for days afterward from tensing my muslces so tight just to keep from being thrown around.

I walked outside, terrified and saw a plume of smoke coming from downtown. I was terrified of the telephone pole in my front yard because during each aftershock it swayed like crazy. I shut off the gas and that night we hung out on the hilltop at the Chaminade in Soquel (where my now ex worked as a hotel manager). It was pretty cool, we had a huge bon fire and there was champagin and finger foods. Someone there had a battery operated TV. It was the first time I've ever heard the Emergency Broadcasting System at work on the radio...we listened all night on the van radio.

Went home the next day and we didn't have gas/electricity for almost three days. The weeks to follow in Santa Cruz were very very sad as I walked downtown and watched beautiful old buildings being demolished and witnessed the rescue efforts to find the poor people trapped in those buildings.

TO THIS DAY, each and every time I hear a large truck drive by or something that remotely resembles an earthquake, my adrenaline goes to work...even as I type this my heart races. It was quite an experience and made me realize just how insignificant we are in the larger scheme of things.

Sorry so long, but like I said at the beginning, it's like it was yesterday.

Happy anniversary!

 

That sure isn't funny posting as Richter Boy's Mother considering she is dead.

So I will assume that's a sock puppet of somebody's. And that's a red card for the user on his regular account also.

 

Oh my goodness!!

You mean to tell me a ghost is posting on big soccer??!!!

Now that's even more scary than your account of the Quake.

 

Ooo, one more thing. My daughter's who were 10 and 11 at the time were on a trip exploring caves in Redding. Thank goodness the quake didn't hit up there while they were in caves!!!!!!!!

And as for commemerating the event...I just did in my posts. Thanks G!

 

To whomever is posting as my Mother: F#ck you sad-sack c@ck-sucker. My mother was killed by a drunk driver as she sat at a stop-light in 1993. Now as funny as you think you are- do you have something else to say to me??? If you were a big enough person to say this crap to my face, I would rip your fooking head off.

 

I don't remember it. I was only like three years old though. I lived in San Mateo. Your brain naturally forgets tramitic experiences so I believe that's what happened to me. Although, my family has a picture of either me or my sister standing in the doorway going outside looking up at the sky. And around me (or my sis) there's just a bunch of fallen wood and debree and stuff. It's an awesome pic.

I won't really be commemorating it. But I just hard that supposibly there is going to be a quake during the SF's world series game.

TRANSFORM
MARI

 

That is some talent.

TRANSFORM
MARI

 

OK, do I have to bring this back to reality?

I was at Candlestick Park in upper box section 5 row 1 with my grandfather -- seeing his first ever World Series game (I had been at game 1 in Oakland).

It all made sense there...rumours were rampant prior to game 3 that (Giants star) Will Clark may not have been healthy enough to play in game 3 while fighting the flu. When he came out of the dugout to warm up there was a bolt of excitement that ran through the crowd...and the upper stand began to bounce gently...then WHAM!, instead of bouncing gently, the old yard shook side to side. Funny thing about earthquakes, before you really realize that it's an earthquake, it's over. I remember grabbing both arms of my seat and rising slightly as if I were going to need to run and saying "WHOOOOOAH...!"

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over, and the 60,000+ inside Candlestick Park let out a mighty cheer and readied for the game. We had no idea how bad it was...and didn't care. Then, I heard the buzz about the Bay Bridge collapse. For some reason I had my WatchMan in my bag that night, so I fired it up and tried to find Ch 7 (ABC was carrying the World Series that year). When the signal was very faint within the city, and all Ch 7 was showing was a rerun of Roseanne, I knew that it was much more serious than any of us realized...and, of course, it was.

My grandfather, who had spent his entire life in structural ironwork building many buildings on the San Francisco and San Jose skylines, was so scared by the earthquake that he never went back to Candlestick Park...he'd had enough.

By the way, my grandfather just passed his 92nd birthday in July. He suffered a minor stroke about a month ago and this might be the last World Series he's mentally competant enough to understand. Anyone who wants to throw their support behind the SF Giants for his sake -- so he can see see a World's Champion Giants team while he's still lucid enough to enjoy it -- I'd appreciate it.

And how am I commemmorating this occasion...with a bottle of my favorite Australian wine...DRINK IT!

 

Okay, Spart, you got it. I may not be much of a baseball fan, but for your grandpa's sake, I will be. GO GIANTS!!!!

 

Awww, that's cool and sweet. TEAR!

I've never really been much of a baseball fan till my nephew started playing little leauge during the summer. I'm into it now. But I wouldn't by tickets to go see them because being so used to 10 dollar seats at spartan, i wouldn't pay 40 to see something that I'm not THAT into. But I support the giants, although I live in the east bay and everyone here is like "go a's", and i don't want to feel like I jumped ON the bandwagon...

TRANSFORM
MARI

 

Oh, yeah...one last Loma Prieta irony.

Only one item broke in my apartment due to the earthquake. It was a coffee mug. My San Jose Earthquakes coffee mug.

Weird, eh?

 

I was in upper deck 42 (left field) with my friend's mother. My friends Lisa and Bob have had G's season tix by first base since the mid-80s, and for that year got offered the chance to buy extra seats, so they got two extra to each game. I drew the lucky straw, I guess, getting the 10/17 tix.

I remember there was a beer stand on the concourse under our seats, and I was just coming back to the seats when WHAM! everything started shaking. I got to my seat and put my beers down. It got calm, then shook more. At least one of the beers dumped on its own. The metal handrail popped up out of the cement steps a few inches. Lisa's mom was in the bathroom, so I bolted back down to the concourse and shouted in there to make sure she was okay, then I went back up to the seats.

Then everyone sat down. I think a lot of us were in shock or still thought the game might be played. But enough people brought in portable TVs/radios, and once KGO reported that "San Francisco is on fire, and the Bay Bridge has collapsed" people started freaking out and leaving. It was weird walking out and seeing people just sitting and crying on the concourse and on the ramps.

We wound up staying and BBQ'ing/drinking until about 10 PM, then made the slow 90 minute or so drive to unincorporated Menlo Park, where I lived then. When we showed up, my whole block was outside with a huge bonfire going in the middle of the street.

My office building had been hit really bad and was unsafe, so I got several days off post-quake.