this day 10/17/89 .. what were YOU doing

pink.dutch.tulips

hard to believe that its been 22 years since the earth shook, rattled and rolled in these parts during the bay 2 bay world series ....

what were YOU  doing that day/night ?

torylynn1

I was at soccer practice-I had no clue until I got home and saw the news. I was 9 and we live in Sacramento, but my sister was waiting for her ride to soccer practice and said our pool had waves.

pink.dutch.tulips

i wasn't in CA .. YET, i was in philadelphia. we missed loma prieta by a year.

my brother was watching the game in his bedroom and the tv went black, he yelled and then it came back on. being kids of so cal natives who liked to scare us w/ stories of earthquakes past, we knew this was NOT good. i tried to get ahold of cousins in el cerrito, naturally we couldn't, and my parents, were conveniently out to dinner that night.

needless to say, they came home to me watching the news showing the marina district burning up and me telling them that oh yeah there was a huge earthquake and the bay bridge collapsed. oddly enough, they didn't freak out. they knew that attempting to get ahold of my dad's brother would be pointless. they called 2 days later and all was fine .. a little bit of damage but other than that, everyone was ok.

eta: i was 15 at the time

 

 

melgrady

I was walking through the backdoor at home and fell on the floor when the quake hit. It must have happened after school if I was at home. My brother was on a swing in our backyard and fell off, lol (yeah, I was a meanie older sister).

melgrady

A few of my co-workers will talk about what it was like in the SF FiDi that day and I just blush because I was 6 when the earthquake happened.

RoxysMama

Probably crapping in my pants. I was 1 1/2 years old.

Mrs.BoomBoom

I was a Sophomore in high school.  I don't remember what I was doing particularly since I didn't live here.

CarFar

I was 8. I was picked up from dance class and the car swerved a bit. We got home ( mom's boyfriend had picked me up) and then proceeded to wait for my mom to get home. She worked in the city at the time and I think it took her 5 hours to get to Palo Alto from the sunset that night. I think it's the only time school was cancelled due to natural disaster/ weather.

StumpyG

I was 5 and remember standing next to the counter watching waves roll through the kitchen floor. I'm sure it's been exaggerated a lot in my memory, but I can still picture the kitchen floor rolling like a stormy sea. Then my mom, sis and I sat together on the floor of the living room into the night waiting for my dad to come home. We knew he was commuting home, and he had in fact crossed the section of 880 that collapsed literally less than 5 minutes before the quake.

And to think that quake experience pales in comparison to 7 months ago... Crazy world.

hersheykiss

I was 11, and I was living in NC. I remember watching it on the news. I was so busy with my sisters and trying to stay out of trouble I didn't really think about it.

abvernon

Man, most of you were youngins when it happened.

I was at home getting ready to watch the World Series game with my dad. 

Want to know how much of a good student I was?

After all the comotion, I went outside and finished up my math homework. I still went to school the next day but was sent home after 1st period.

hannikan

I wonder if we have anyone who was born that year... I had just turned 12 and I remember I was reading the Trumpeter of Krakow for a school book report when the windows in my bedroom started rattling. I thought someone was trying to break in. In the kitchen my mom and bros didn't feel anything. I lived in Fresno so I wasn't in the Bay Area. But we had just moved back from living in Berkeley about a year earlier so I still had friends there. One was performing in a choir when it happened. Everyone I knew was fine.

pink.dutch.tulips

abvernon:

Man, most of you were youngins when it happened.

I was at home getting ready to watch the World Series game with my dad. 

Want to know how much of a good student I was?

After all the comotion, I went outside and finished up my math homework. I still went to school the next day but was sent home after 1st period.

the realization that i'm FOURTEEN years older than someone who posted in this thread makes me feel REALLY old !

 

RedRedWine2

I was at home (in Concord) practicing magic tricks (I have NO Idea why I remember this). All of the sudden my dad yells at my sister and I to get outside, so we went to the backyard and I remember our pool had mini tsunami waves going on...crazy. I was 7.

hannikan

pink.dutch.tulips:

abvernon:

Man, most of you were youngins when it happened.

the realization that i'm FOURTEEN years older than someone who posted in this thread makes me feel REALLY old !

When I was student teaching I had a couple of students who were born in '89 (they were 18). They would be 21/22 now, I guess. Crazy that a few of the women here are about the same age.

leolyns

I was in 6th grade and was sitting at the dining room table doing math homework. My mom was helping me and when the earthquake shook, I thought she was shaking the table as a joke. I told her to stop and she said she wasn't shaking the table and that we needed to duck and cover since it was an earthquake. I lived in Pleasant Hill at the time, and I remember our power was out for a while so we drove a few miles to my grandparents and stayed there for the night. All of us (two cousins, my sister, my mom and grandparents) were glued to the tv watching the aftermath.

andrea3122

Can I just say, holy crap, that was 22 years ago?!?!?!?!

I was getting ready to cheer on my beloved Giants.

wldktz10

I was in NY and I was 4 so I had no idea any of this even happened.

Beezo23

I remember watching it tv because the World Series was interrupted (in more ways than one).  I was living in MA (my home state).  Oh, and I was 9 years old.

tilden2

pink.dutch.tulips:

abvernon:

Man, most of you were youngins when it happened.

I was at home getting ready to watch the World Series game with my dad. 

Want to know how much of a good student I was?

After all the comotion, I went outside and finished up my math homework. I still went to school the next day but was sent home after 1st period.

the realization that i'm FOURTEEN years older than someone who posted in this thread makes me feel REALLY old !

 

T, I'll make you feel younger!  I was working at the Geary Theatre in SF when the quake hit. This is what it looked like afterwards.  I was 28 at the time.

It took about 7 years to get the theatre completely renovated and ready for use again.

 

dani2480

I had just returned home from Girl Scouts and was begging my mom (sitting at the dining table, sewing) to let me watch the World Series with my dad (sitting on the couch a few feet away). My mom gave me a stern "no", and told me I could watch it when I was finished with my homework. I started stomping off to my room when my dad said "did you feel that"? And as soon as my mom said "what?" the violent shaking started. My mom flew under the table, and my dad ran outside (where my younger brothers were playing). I remember running out after him and seeing the telephone lines swaying, and I swear I saw the truck with the camper on the back actually bouncing up off the ground a little (but who knows if that got exaggerated in my 8 year old mind).

True to form, my mom sent me to school the next day! I was one of maybe 5 kids in the class. We spent the whole time in a dark classroom (the drapes were drawn to protect us from shattered glass in case of a big aftershock), talking and learning about the earthquake.

True love since 5/7/99

I was 6  living in NJ & never hear of this until i moved out here in 07

aj0915

funny how traumatic experiences let you remember every.single.detail.

i was 12 and in SJ. I was standing in the kitchen helping my mom with dinner when at 5:04 it hit...my niece that was 6 months at the time was in her swing in the living room right by the chimney.  i ran to go get her out, meantime my mom was frozen and didn't know what to do..i yell at her to join me under the table since the china cabinet she was standing next to was rocking hard.  

can't believe it's been 22 years since that day.  to this very day any little shake actually makes me want to cry.

also tease my niece and tell her she has me to thank for saving her from sudden death..  

MrsJulieT

I was 9 so I'm sure I was in school. I remember watching all the footage on tv though. I think watching the car drive into the V where the bay bridge had collapsed is one of the first big things in history that I remember.

hannikan

Yeah, I was pretty horrified watching the cars drive off the Bay Bridge when the section broke off. Car after car driving into the bay... it kind of haunted me. It always makes me nervous to drive/ride over the bridges because I'm always thinking if there was an earthquake...

soprano19

I was 2, and I was at home in San Jose with my mom who was pregnant with my brother. I remember the coat rack in the front room falling over and some pictures falling off the wall, and I remember standing in a doorway with my mom. I thought our golden retriever Casey was shaking the house.

pinkdaisylove

hannikan:

I wonder if we have anyone who was born that year...

Hahaha, I was born in 1989! I don't even remember the earth quake because I was 3 months old lol

LoLoPanda

I had just gotten home from school and my Dad had me on his lap in the kitchen talking about our day. He had the TV on since the World Series was going to start, and my mom was in their bedroom at the back of the house changing out of her work clothes. All of a sudden, we felt the ground shake and a loud roar and it got worse and worse. I remember peeking out from under my Dad's arm that was wrapped around the front of me and I saw our refridgerator jumping up and down. After it was done, my Dad put me under the kitchen table and went to go see if my mom was OK. I still remember it clearly.

mrs.jacinthe

I was 8.  Sitting on the couch in OH watching the world series with my dad.  Obviously I have no memories of shaking (Heh) but I remember watching the news afterwards and it was horrifying.  Even as an 8 y/o I could appreciate the loss of life and how scary it must have been for everyone.