Nitrohaulic
Nitro Member
Yeah, I missed a lot of life living in aluminum cans for the last 21 years but, occasionally I've been able to experience things I otherwise wouldn't have.
Probably the most memorable and definitely not good one was being in Salinas, CA during the 1989 earthquake.
Loma Prieta earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I might as well tell my version. I was in a produce shed signing papers for strawberries that were still being loaded. All of a sudden the building starts shaking and it gets loud, just like if you were in a house where a fast train's going by. I looked at the guy across the counter and said "I don't remember any train tracks around here." He quickly yells back to me "There AREN'T any f***ing trains around here!
We all run outside and I'll never forget the earth looking like you're standing in the middle of the ocean. Cars were moving around in the parking lot on their own and everyone looked like they were drunk, weaving around and just trying to stay upright. After it was over my trailer was about 6" away from the dock. The forklift was still in it, running. Never saw the driver again. We thought he must've run home. I don't think there was an unbroken window anywhere.
The power was one of the first things to go and someone came up with a battery operated radio. Had no idea all those people got killed on 880. Our hearts really went out for them when we heard the news. One of the weirdest parts was, 30 minutes after it was over, putting my hand on handrails that were concreted into the ground and feeling that they were still vibrating. Also heard on the radio that people at the World Series (which was going on at the time) watched the upper deck waving up and down over their heads.
Another funny thing was the way the vibration frequency worked. If you talked to people who were driving during the quake, (as on the CB that night), if they were going one direction they felt nothing. If they were going the other way, they said it felt like all their tires were flat, that the car or truck was just churning, trying to move.
Had no cell phones back then, couldn't call out, was supposed to make one last pickup of a couple pallets of lettuce (it always went on the back/worst riding part of the trailer due to being durable). I got to the place, they couldn't open their electric doors. When I heard that there was a chance of an aftershock that'd be worse than the original quake, I said hell with it and got the heck out of California and, I wasn't alone! A LOT of people were getting out.
I lived in Walker/Grand Rapids for about a year as a last ditch effort to make a marriage work. Best memories there was watching Jeff LaHaie going for his super comp license at 131 and, listening to Ted Nugent do his morning show going into Detroit, when I wasn't going the other way into Chicago.
Anyone ever been to Giant Steak Burrito in Summit, IL? Those carrot and jalepeno slices that they'd soak together to go with their "football" burritos on 16" tortillas!
I've been leased to Landstar (along with over 8,000 other owner-operators) for the last couple years. Every Sunday I go to Martinsville, VA to drop my empty trailer and pick up one up loaded with cabinets. Usually 15-20 stops between Jersey and Mass. I start my week out listening to people say "rad- (like "radical)-iator" and "I have no ideer" and finish it listening to people say "We're going to take the cah to the bah because it's too fah to walk." and "Bastids"
Halfway in between it's "We're going to Bawston Mawket, Mawge."This weekend I'm enjoying the fun of ownership by replacing a clutch in my Kenworth. If I were a Bostonian I'd be saying "That was a heavy bastid."
It was!As much as anything, I enjoy when I'm able to eat in diners with locals who know each other. I'm happy just being around regular people. I just went to a diner north of Boston where I used to have a regular run and hadn't been since December of last year. The people there said they were just wondering the other day what happened with me. That was pretty cool and touching.
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