I am a native Southern Californian and I do know that I have felt some significant jolts from small quakes that happen to be right under us! I remember feeling a what I thought was a larger quake, only to find out that is was only a 2.0 but directly under our house!
True enough, but most folks never experience one right smack dab at the epicenter.
I remember feeling the Sylmar quake of 1971 at our house in the southern part of the county. We were more than 40 miles away from the epicenter, and it shook every stud and rafter in our house. Even the electrical transmission towers out back were swaying back and forth.
I had the same experience when I was a college student in L.A. MANY years ago. I was living in an apartment in Playa del Rey, not far from the L.A. Airport (LAX).
At 5:00 AM, I suddenly woke up, and was lying their in bed for a few minutes, trying to fall asleep again.
Suddenly, there was a sharp but strong earthquake that lasted for about 10 seconds or so. It felt fairly strong, but I later found out it was only 2.0 or slightly higher on the Richter scale....a nothing of an earthquake by California standards. I later learned that I was nearly on top of the epicenter (according to the guy on the radio).