This Six may sound redundant, but it was an earth shaking experience :-0

In 1957, I was in kindergarten in a San Francisco public school. I remember that 5.7 quake: the shaking, the scary looks, the fear of us little kids as our teacher rounded us into the cloakroom from our desks to "escape" the rolling floors and possible collapse of the ceiling.

But strangely, my little kid's memory was crowded with other visuals and sensations during those frightening moments. I remember that morning at breakfast begging Mommy to let me wear her pretty headscarf to school. Most moms in the 1950's wore scarves whenever they went outside, and I particularly liked that scarf. So she relented, neglecting to tell me she hadn't washed the spaghetti sauce out of it she had once accidentally spilled on it. Also, that it still had a political button that said "I Like Ike" pinned to it.

So in that cloakroom I remember feeling the earthquake's relentless rumbling, smelling the spaghetti sauce, smelling the nauseating egg or tunafish sandwiches in the kids' lunches tucked in cubbies, and smelling fear, for the first time.

It's amazing to me I didn't throw up.

Seismic shift in Six.