I was born in '63, so I've been through everything of any size since then; Sylmar, Whittier Narrows, Sierra Madre, the "Rose Bowl" quake, Landers/Bigbear, Northridge, and a few other big ones from way out in the southern desert. Though, I kinda missed the Whittier Narrows quake. I was driving to work that morning in a little pickup truck. At 80 MPH going down the I-210 toward the Tujunga wash, I was having my own, private earthquake! I didn't notice the extra shaking at all. It wasn't until I saw all of the dust getting kicked up back in the canyon that I realized that something big had actually hit.
I had just gotten off of work for that one and was standing at my front door wondering which way to go. But looking out at the parked cars rocking and rolling against their parking brakes, even outside didn’t seem safe. Later I talked to my brother and he was driving south on the “5” near Dodger Stadium when he thought he was having a blow out. He quickly realized that eveyone else was having the same blow out...The freeway slowed to a crawl.