The Day the Earth Moved

I'd unpacked my worldly belongings - two trips in the Triumph Spitfire - my Galiano bottle filled with pennies and 17" black and white television among them, and was settling in at 4221 Kling Street. Most of the people in the building were young. In fact, the apartment across the court from me was filled with "Gold Diggers". I am not referring to women looking for rich husbands but, rather, dancers on the Dean Martin Show taped at NBC. Really, Dean Martin....

My apartment was on the second floor and I immediately set out to make the impersonal furnishings my own. I couldn't paint but ran right out and bought cork board squares and double taped them in a ridiculous collage on a wall. The bathroom suddenly had bright purple daisy decals on the walls and I thought I was incredibly cool.

I'd probably been there about four days and had fallen asleep pretty early. All that mindful decorating had taken its' toll.

At 6:00AM on Tuesday, February 9, 1971 I felt an intense shaking. Before I was awake I thought "somebody must be taking a car out of the garage". My bedroom in Locust Valley was over the garage and that's where I thought I was initially. But then I realized I certainly wasn't. As I sat up in the bed I watched my prized television slide off the small table, hit the bed, and then the floor. I jumped up, ran through the apartment and opened the front door. The building was moving from side to side as the water from the pool sloshed over the side in a mini tidal wave. And then....it stopped....

I went back into the apartment to survey the damage. The cork boards were still on the wall and not one dish broke. Probably because they were all in the sink. I was still traveling light in life.

About five minutes went by - I had no idea what to do or where to go. Where there earthquake days? Should I go to work?

Then the phone rang...it was my mother. She said she had a feeling something was "wrong". I'll say....she turned on the television and discovered the details...a 6.6 earthquake had hit Sylmar - about fifteen miles up the 405 freeway. Just hearing her voice calmed my jumping heart. We talked for a few minutes and then the phone went dead. I tried to call her back and, amazingly, got through. I hadn't spoken to my father since they left after Christmas which was par for that course and, actually, fine with me. But my mother, once again, said magical words, "if you want to come home for a few days we'll pay for the ticket". I told her I was just fine as the first of hundreds of aftershocks hit. I hung up the phone and shakily went outside just in time to hear one of the Gold Diggers say "my mother says it will all be just fine". I asked where her mother was and she responded, "Kansas"....ok, then.

I can't say I remember the next couple of hours but I got dressed and decided to go to work - on the 6th floor of an office building in Hollywood. I wasn't sure what to take with me when I left.

Charm bracelets....most definitely.