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Lake Merritt
Monisha Bajaj On October 17, 1989 I was in the 8th grade and at a soccer game we were playing in one of the grassy areas around Lake Merritt. In the running and jumping of the game, I didn’t realize it...
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Dumbarton Bridge
Michael Tebow I was young during the Loma Prieta Quake. Turned 7 that year. My family lived in Newark, in the East Bay towards the south end of the bay. There was 6 of us total, mom and dad, my older...
View ArticleStuffed Animals and Earthquake Dresses
Laura Wilson I was five years old and living in Newark when the earthquake hit. My eleven year-old sister was watching me while my dad cut firewood in the side yard, and in order to distract me from...
View ArticleClayton Cul-De-Sac
Shanna M. In 1989 I was in the 5th grade and living in Clayton, in the Mt. Diablo foothills, on a cul-de-sac that ended at the border of Mt. Diablo State Park. There were maybe half a dozen families on...
View ArticlePink Bike on Bancroft
Celine Parreñas Shimizu As a Cal undergrad in 1989, I was 19 and working passionately, fervently and feverishly on a magazine I started by and about women of color. I got to campus at all hours on my...
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Bay Bridge
Jim Murray I was driving just east of Yerba Buena Island when I felt like I had like had a flat tire and heard a loud clank like running over a large piece of steel. The traffic was stopping, and still...
View ArticleAdobo in Union City
Monica Espiritu I had just turned 25. I was hanging out with my folks for an early dinner in front of the television in their little Union City house. Like most people in the Bay Area, we planned on...
View ArticleUpper Deck Westbound
Kathy August It’s the kind of day you never forget – right up there with the day Kennedy was shot or when the Challenger Space Shuttle went down. I was on the Bay Bridge, traveling with my mother, my...
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From CCAC to the Cypress Structure
Jennifer Cobb I was at CCAC on the south side of the campus on October 17th. We were working on a project outside on the edge of a building built up high on bedrock, so we saw the earthquake before we...
View ArticleYarn Supply Store
Indigo Som I was a few months out of Cal, living in Emeryville, and working at the yarn supply store Straw Into Gold, in an old 2-story warehouse at the corner of San Pablo & Ashby (Berkeley). My...
View ArticleOn The Air
Wendy Tokuda I was at Candlestick Park, field anchoring for the World Series, when the shaking started. When the masts on the news vans began to sway, we moved to a safe area and could see the concrete...
View ArticlePleasanton Court Pools
Judy McElearney Nobriga I was inside my home in Pleasanton with my 10 year-old son, Scott. My other two children were outside on the court, playing and riding their bicycles. As a native San...
View ArticleBristol Rd to La Borinqueña
Ricardo Olguin I was 10 years old. The weather was hot and dry, our Indian summer in the East Bay. The sky was orange, as it is with every earthquake weather. I lived on Bristol Road in Dublin, and I...
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