[X]PRESSONLINE

Story by Mark Howell

A customer of mine at work reminded me that Tuesday, Oct. 17, was the anniversary of the big earthquake of 1989. This brought back a lot of memories.

It was the Battle of the Bay Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. The Giants were on the verge of being swept, but the there was something else on every Bay Area residents mind that day. Just as the A’s scored another run, televisions everywhere began to shut off and the ground started to shake. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the Bay Area ground and everybody ran for cover.

I was six years old at the time and I remember what I was doing that day. I wasn’t into sports back than so I wasn’t one of the millions watching the World Series. I was watching the Snorkels, while my mom was in the kitchen putting the dishes away. All of a sudden, the TV shut off and our apartment began to move. I was in the middle of the living room, so I just curled up into a ball and covered my head, while my mom was in the kitchen trying to keep the cabinets from spilling out our glassware.

I didn’t know what was happening at the time because I never heard of an earthquake or been in one. The TV wasn’t working so we turned on the radio and the guy from the station was telling us that an earthquake just hit the bay area. My mom was worried about my father, who was owned a grocery store at the time, so we jumped in the car and went over to his store to see if he was all right. When we got there, we found out that three bottles fell on him, but he turned out to be fine.

The television at his store was working and we all started watching the news and learning about the damage the earthquake caused. What I remember from that news coverage was the footage on the Bay Bridge. I remember the car driving on the top deck of the bridge and all of sudden it falls right through to the second deck. That really scared me, but we all calmed down when a few family members came by and we all sat down and started telling ghost stories.

Finally after all the stories were told, we went home and checked on our apartment. There was no major damage, just a few broken glasses, which we all helped to clean up.

That happened 17 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I am just hoping that the Bay Area does not have to go through that again.