Forty years ago my dad woke me up and said I must go outside because there were elephants under my bed.
Tsk.
South Africa had just experienced its worst earthquake: 6.3 on the Richter scale. We were 90km away, and it was felt as far away as Durban (1175km).
Mr Muffin remembers he was watching a cowboy movie in the old Alhambra Theatre.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary, the Tulbagh Hotel is hosting a ‘Tulbagh Rocks” party. Your R75.00 includes a cocktail, a burger and a Rock ‘n Roll Party. Cool hey?
What were you doing on 29 September 1969?
29 sep 69 I was a busy toddler, I was probably at that time driving my mom insane … some 10,000 km away from the earthquake…
My dad told me they had a big earthquake in Vienna (also around that year sometime) while he was busy visiting a museum – history, he was in the room with the armors .. you know the stuff those poor knights had to wear .. now imagine the earth trembling and all these things starting to shake ….
I can barely remember what I was doing last week let alone 40 Septembers ago – there’s probably a word for that.
Suffice to say I know for sure I was at Junior School in Bulawayo ergo…no elephants were under my bed
@Bettina – nice one, thanks! And thanks for the visit – good to see you here.
@Possum – There probably is a word for it. But like you, I can’t remember. Yup, no elephants. No dust bunnies either, if the way you clean up at Scrabble is anything to go by.
I remember 29 Sep 1967 very vividly. I was 25 yrs old at the time. Was in the bath (of all things) when suddenly bath started “moving”. Then I heard a rumbling sound underneath it. I jumped out of bath, put a towel (one of those tiny little hand towels) around me and ran into lounge where my then husband and friends were “band” practising. Then I remembered that I had a baby in the cot in another room. Ran to room, grabbed baby and we all ran outside. All this, forgetting about little towel around me.
Anyway then the “shaking” stopped and we realised it was an earthquake. Guys must have had an “eyeful” but what the hell!! Very very frightening experience. Those poor people in Haiti.
Love your story Anita, thanks for sharing it.
Haiti: absolutely. The horror stories just keep coming, don’t they?
On the night of 29th September 1969 my grandparents were visiting. My brother and I were already asleep. I woke up suddenly feeling the bed shaking under me. At first I thought my brother was under the bed playing tricks on me, but then realised the noise that went with the shaking was very loud. My family were all on the opposite side of the house in the lounge. My father ran through the house to get to us, with the dog running with him almost tripping him up. He later described the floor as rolling waves. He burst into my bedroom just in time to catch the big wooden “Wireless”, that was on my headboard, from falling on my head. We all gathered around the radio in the lounge after the tremor to listen to the news. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. I was 9 years old at the time, and am now 50, and can still remember it as though it were yesterday.
On a different occasion when there was another earth quake in Tulbach, my father was there as the manager of the CAPAB Ballet Company, who were performing in the town. The audience ran out of the auditorium, grown men pushing woman and children out of the way and scrambling over the chairs in order to get out. The dancers continued dancing in an attempt to calm the people but they too had to run out of the building.
Thank you for sharing your stories, Desre. Isn’t it interesting how vividly we remember incidents from our childhood!
I remember the tremmors quite vividly. Was a Monday night. I was in the barracks of A.F.B. Ysterplaat, whilst completing my National Service, listening to Bob Dylan.
Hilton, wouldn’t it be ironic if you’d been listening to ‘The Times they are a Changing’? Ja…those days of National Service…