I KNEW Something Happened On This Date!

 

I knew something I should've remembered happened today but it didn't hit me until I was reading Towleroad's blog and he mentioned that it's the 15th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta (Bay Area) earthquake.

I recall that day really well! I had gotten back home in the Inner Sunset from school (San Francisco State) at about 3:30pm and decided to go take a nap shortly thereafter. I woke up just before 5pm and decided to start knocking off Juno and the Paycock for my Theatre History class before I meandered into the kitchen to get dinner together. I got about 4 pages into it when ZAP! the rumbling noise seguing right into the actual rumble rocking my apartment. Venetian blinds slamming against the windows repeatedly; watching the bookcases in my living room rock back and forth; the creaking and groaning of the building under the stress. I never got dressed so quickly in my life. My heart racing, I went to turn on the tv to see what the news reported...nothing; no power. I went outside to insepct the damage in the area and saw that all the buildings on my block were still standing and the only visible damage was some major plaster cracks on the building at the corner. I spoke to a couple of neighbors and other than some rattled nerves, they were okay. In my apartment, the only thing I had to do was straighten out a few pictures, close a couple of kitchen cabinet doors, throw away the shards of a jar that had fallen off my tv and shattered, sending pennies clear across to the other side of the living room, and to sooth the very frayed nerves of my poor little cat, Nat who hid under a table for 20 minutes.

I went to the corner grocery store to see how things were with the owner Phil, who I had become friendly with. The place was a mess with cans, jars, and boxes knocked to the floor. Luckily, he and Julie the employee were alright. There was small crowd outside gathered around the portable radio Phil had set up on his car and with a couple bottles of booze and soda, were listening in on the news. A short time later, when I was heading back into my building (about an hour after the quake), I heard a phone ring so I figured I'd try to get a call out to my parents in NYC and let them know I was okay. They had just heard the news about the quake and my mom wondered if "it was just in your neighborhood". My parents, God love 'em, are born and bred New Yorkers who have never had to deal with earthquakes so had no idea of what they're like. "Yes," I told them, "and everywhere else within about 100 mile radius." Poor them, tho - it wasn't until later that night when they saw the videos of what had happened due to the quake and they tried to get a hold of me again (which was impossible since Pac Bell blocked all incoming calls to the Bay Area.) My parents dunno the area so they didn't know exactly where my neighborhood was in relation to anywhere else so they feared the worse and alas, had to endure stessed-out time till I landed up calling them the next day.

The power came back on in my neighborhood about 1am that night so at least I was able to watch the news reports on the tv for a few hours while i tried to get some sleep on the couch.

The rest of the general story you know but I managed to survive my frayed nerves and landed up moving back to TooStoned a few months later.