Rose Hendrickson's story

I was 9. I had six younger sisters and we were under the care of a 12 year old sitter awaiting the arrival of our parents home from work. We were watching the stop motion puppet cartoon 'Fireball XL5', a big favorite. We thought the approaching rumble might be our parents coming up the driveway. It wasn't.

As our world began to heave and crumble our sitter got us out of the house, (the only disaster preparedness training she had) and led us barefoot, through the snow, to her parent's house, (about 2 blocks away I guess, but very rural as our homes were on the hillside) I remember that it was almost impossible to stand or walk, and I thought it so curious that the tops of the trees kept bending over to meet the earth, while my father's big military truck bounced wildly on its tires. The rocks fell out of our fireplace. A guitar fell off the wall where it had hung and onto my back. We speculated that it might be the apocalypse.

As it turned out we did not see our parents that evening, or indeed for at least 24, maybe even 36 hours. They were stranded on the other side of the giant fissures that had formed in O'Malley Road. We were pretty accepting as children, we had adult care, food and comfort at the time and were as safe as anyone, but I can't imagine, looking back now as a parent myself, the anxiety my parents must have been feeling about their inaccessible home and family.