20 Years Ago Today...

This is a complete departure from the normal content of this blog, but I saw a post from a friend on Facebook earlier that reminded me that today was what I like to refer to as "earthquake day." Not only that, but today marked the twenty-year anniversary of said earthquake. It's strange to think that it's already been twenty years since I was a little sixth-grader, sitting at my desk in my bedroom and fiddling with the batteries in my Walkman. I was leaning back in my chair, trying to switch the dying batteries around so that I could squeeze just a little more life out of them, when BAM! At 5:04pm, everything started shaking. I fell onto the floor, and watched as one corner of my room seemed to rise and fall for what felt like an eternity (turns out it was only 15 seconds).

Once the shaking stopped, I ran outside. My brother was out there playing with our neighbor, Travis, who just stood there looking dumbfounded. I remember yelling at him to go home (which actually makes me giggle, because Travis was kind of a doofus). We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the driveway, listening to radio reports and being afraid to go back into the house because of possible gas leaks. For dinner that night, we attempted to barbecue a can of refried beans (it was awful). And after dinner, we went to the ice cream social at my elementary school. They had decided not to cancel the event, and it really became the place where everyone got together to talk about what had happened. It was probably the most successful ice cream social ever! Not to mention the fact that the school had electricity, while most of the houses did not.

I remember hearing that the Bay Bridge had collapsed, which turned out to be somewhat of an exaggeration. I remember going to sleep that night, and being jarred awake by a multitude of very strong aftershocks that made my heart race. Really, I can't believe it's been twenty years... I feel like it was yesterday!