I have lived in southern California all my life-almost fifty years. I have experienced all the major earthquakes in that time, however, never near the epicenter. I was checking in for a plane at LAX a few months after the Northridge quake and a guy who lived right there said he too had experienced many, but it was completely different when a big one hits right where you are- way worse. Now THAT scared me, and I'm blase about quakes!
Living in WLA during the 71 earthquake was proably the scariest earthquake because as a Kid I was thinking the world was now ending! my dad took us to the San Fernando Valley to see the damage and it was amazing...