San Francisco Earthquake − 17 October, 1989

Many of my close friends know that I have a perverse interest in disasters, especially when I'm in from the ground floor. The 1989 World Series earthquake was one of those "TV disasters" that I experienced myself. I remember that I actually had a skin rash of some kind, and was holed up in my bedroom in our Candleridge apartment, with medicine all over my chest and laying out shirtless on a recliner.

I hadn't been to school in a couple days, and I felt like I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. My friends must have been away at the time, as well, because I was all by myself for once. But I was watching "Rescue 911", the William Shatner show about dramatized 911 emergency calls, and the show was interrupted by news of the earthquake. I remember seeing the pancaked highway bridges and video of fires during the midafternoon. I spent the rest of the day watching the news.