My grandmother was about 11 when the quake happened. She had a house guest that night, and when the quake tossed her out of the bed, she said "Goddammit Grace, what the *beep* are you doing?" She learned later that it was an earthquake. She always had a 'gift' for language.
Her father had some part in the reconstruction effort, but that was not his bailiwick, he was an artist and sign painter.
About five years later, my grandmother eloped, and moved to Portland, OR.
The irony is that my grandfather was a supervisor by around 1920 at the Meier & Franks department store in Portland, and he hired Clark Gable to sell men's clothes and sporting goods. What comes around, goes around.
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kristenspilman
8 years ago
I love hearing these kind of historical, real life stories!
It's too bad that hindsight is 20/20. It would have been great to get your grandma's entire life story in print! I'll bet she had some stories about what happened after the quake and the chaos that followed.
My grandpa was a great cook and actually was a chef for Adolf Menjou on his ranch, a chef at the Ambassador where Robert Kennedy was shot, flew bi-planes and worked on Harold Lloyd's (silent film star) ranch way back in the 1930's. My mom got to play with some of the different movie stars children. Of course for her...she was just a little kid and didn't realize that these kids were anything but playmates.
My sister and I could just kick ourselves for not being more attentive to our grandparents and videotaping their life stories. Most of the info on their lives, we didn't find out about until my Grandpa passed away.
KAS1958
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