My first quake was actually in college, known as the Mt. Baldy quake I think. It was a magnitude 5.5 that had struck somewhere in the mountain range, something like 5 miles from my college campus. A pre-quake lurch of sorts had shaken the building I was in around lunchtime and I remember asking someone if a truck had hit the building.
Now, there are probably a few really bad places to be during an earthquake. I'll count freshman chemistry lab as somewhere in the top 50, particularly when the lab is on the top floor of a short building. I'll always remember fondly the single instant that separated the mundane goings-on in the lab and the utter chaos of glassware flying off of lab benches, water and other liquids splashing everywhere, and one Nina Ball screaming as I looked directly at her from across the room that "We're all gonna die!"
We didn't, but as the building shook I watched those who knew head for the door frames. I followed and was pushed out into the hall where I encountered my roommate and lab parter, Kevin, who had also been pushed into the hall. As we would later tell people, he from Hawaii and I from Arizona had no idea what to do with daylight savings time, much less an earthquake. We headed back to our dorm where the upper classmen had broken out their hard hats, shot glasses and a certain REM tune blaring at man dBs.
From then on, rattling glassware, rolling streets that set of dozens of car alarms, and lofts swaying back and forth at odd hours were the norm, and none of it was more than a distraction. Now that I think about it, a Bush was President of the US at that time as well. Hmmmmmm.
Dan and Silicon Valley to Re-Unite
