I was in Sherman Oaks for the Sylmar quake, Canyon Country for the Whittier quake, and had left the southland 2 years before Northridge.
My apartment overhung the parking area during the Sylmar quake, had a pretty wild ride.....nothing like Northridge, though. I'll never forget the picture of a section of the 14 to 5 overpass where it collapsed just before a motorcycle cop went sailing over it to his death.
2 years earlier, I was driving that route every morning.
Just before the Northridge quake, my dog woke up and jumped off the bed and paced around the room. This woke me and my wife and we first thought intruders but after about 30 seconds we started hearing what sounded like a freight train heading our direction, barreling in from the west. We lived in Burbank at the time and I suppose we heard 10 to 15 seconds of this shaking before it actually hit.