Earthquake!

One morning in 1965 I was on my way to school with my brother, Don. We always walked to school.  It was only about 6 or 7 blocks, the majority of which was on the interurban road that ran under the power lines. We hadn't even gotten to the interurban road itself when there was suddenly a deep rumbling and the surrounding world took on a life of its own. The ground started rising and dipping like someone shaking a long rug.  The telephone poles all started swaying wildly back and forth, with the electric lines going up and down.

EARTHQUAKE!

We stopped, frozen, not knowing what was going on. We were scared!  Just then an older boy, Pete LaCoss (whom I knew fairly well), came running around the corner from the interurban and towards us as fast as he could go.

"It's an earthquake!" He yelled as he ran past us, "Run!"

We had no idea what to do so we followed him.  We didn't know what we were running from or where we were running to. After all, an earthquake is not exactly a common occurrence.  We ran to the house at the end of our street and huddled in the shelter of their front porch. After what seemed like forever, the ground finally stopped shaking and we crept out from our hiding place.  We were only a short block from our house, and probably should have went back home, but I don't think we did. I'm pretty sure we continued on to school. As a kid, you don't really think of ripple effects and stuff  like whether or not anything happened at your own home. Home is our sanctuary--our rock. I will always be there. Nothing is ever going to happen to our home, so we wouldn't give it another thought. No, instead I'm pretty sure I went into exploration mode.  I believe that if we would have gone back home mom would not have sent us to school.  After all, the interurban trail was lined with high-tension power lines.  Of course we kids didn't think of that.  Lucky for us, there were no downed lines.

I remember as I walked past Gallagher's Market I saw the man inside "wading" knee-deep through aisles choked with canned goods. It looked like everything on all the shelves was now in a heap on the floor. When the elementary school came into view I could see that the big metal smokestack on top had toppled and was lying on its side. The school was made of brick like most schools seemed to be at the time, and I'm sure there was brick damage. I can't remember if school was cancelled that day or not. I'm sure it was. I don't recall anything newsworthy from home, so I guess nothing major was damaged there. I wish I could remember more about it because it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Oh, and nothing of any consequence happened at home.  Everything was fine.  Even the above-ground car ramp we had at home was okay, which is saying a lot considering it had a car on top of it at the time!