The 6.0 Earthquack

San Jose, California, about 1985:

It was a quiet summer afternoon. Amy was sitting in the living room on the couch in front of a big picture window. Sarah was heading out the glass patio door for the backyard. I'm not sure where I was, but I was probably in the kitchen.

The ground and windows began to shake. Figurines were rattling on the hutch. Sarah froze in the doorway.

I called to the girls to get under the dining table (for protection from falling debris and glass). Just when we settled in under the table, the shaking stopped. We were lucky. No one was hurt, and there was no damage to our home. In fact, the little ceramics on the hutch were not even damaged. They had "walked" to the edge of the shelf, but did not fall off.

People a few blocks away were not so lucky. Their brick fireplace came tumbling down.

When all was said and done, Sarah asked someone how to spell "earthquake." Based on the response, she recorded in her diary that we'd had a 6.0 earthquack! It had felt like the earth was quacking up, so maybe she wasn't so far off, after all.