My Earthquake Story

Whenever hurricanes are rampaging through the Gulf I usually refer you to my hurricane story. Well, on this day of a mild earthquake in Southern California, I'll give you my earthquake story as recounted many times from the stage:

At 4:57 am on June 28, 1992 I was fast asleep when the house decided to start doing the fandango. The pitch black pre-dawn morning suddenly began flashing bright white and black again as transformers starting going off around the area. The 7.3 Landers earthquake was on.

Landers is about 80 miles or so as the crow flies from my house, but with a 7.3 shaker, that's not very far. We were really getting a ride.

We had two small children at the time, 3 and barely 1, and my wife, being the wonderful mother she is, immediately leaped out of bed and ran down the hallway as the transformers flashed to get to my 1 year old son's room.

Me, being the wonderful father that I am, immediately leaped out of the bed and ran over and held onto the entertainment center.

Hey, we can have more kids but that TV was expensive!

Sad to say, yes, it's true. And by the way, that wasn't the last large earthquake that day. At 8:05 we had a 6.4 quake in Big Bear that though not as strong, was closer to us and shook us just about as hard and as long.