Story by Jon Stalnaker
AKA The Studebaker Dude
I saw a commercial for Sonic’s new Peanut Butter/Bacon Hamburger and, being a lover of bacon, it piqued my interest. They also had a shake to go with it but I thought it was just a peanut butter shake. I heard that the burger was good, so we went to Sonic to partake. We took it home and it was indeed delicious, even though it was a bit messy to eat. I saw the commercial again on TV and noticed that the milkshake also had bacon in it. I had to go back to try it before they discontinued it. I did that today and the shake was awesome. I highly recommend it unless you are one of the rare people who don’t like or can’t eat bacon. If you fall into that category, I’m sorry that life is so cruel to you. That takes care of the Shake…
Last night as we were just cuddling up in bed, our headboard (which is not bolted to our bed frame) started to rattle. Carlene placed her hand on the wall and felt movement. By the time I did the same, I didn’t feel anything. My daughter Jillian lives in Gypsy and called us right away. She felt it hard there, as she is much closer to Prague which was near the epicenter. While I believed there was an earthquake, it didn’t rattle me much. After all, I lived most of my life in California. Now a 5.1 Richter scale earthquake might be significant in Oklahoma, but it’s pretty mild in my book. California has had 55 earthquakes that exceed 6.0 on the Richter scale since the 1906 quake that hit San Francisco. That quake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. I was born in 1951 and there have been 37 6.0+ California quakes in my lifetime. I clearly remember several.
I was a Kindergartener at my friend Dana’s house when I felt the first one. I remember there was a “whole lot of shaking going on” and I recall holding on the the dining room curtains. It was a 6.5, strong enough to make an impression on a five-year-old boy but not enough to scare me. I thought it was cool. The next big one was a 7.4 in the early 80s. I was going to work and I jumped in my Scout pickup and hit the button to open my garage door from inside. Just as the garage door started to open, my truck started rocking violently from side to side. My first thought was that the garage door was somehow moving my truck but it didn’t take long before I knew what it really was. I got out of my truck that was still in the garage, and stood out in the middle of the driveway. I remember thinking to myself “I feel the earth move under my feet” as I watched by truck rock back and forth. Now THAT one was really cool. After the ground stopped moving in circles, I got in my truck and drove to work.
The biggest earthquake I experienced was the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco. They were just beginning to play the World Series game between the SF Giants and the Oakland As, when that one hit. They called that game the Battle of the Bay and it was taking place in Candlestick Park. Because of the huge 6.9 quake that brought down the Embarcadero Freeway and a section of the Bay Bridge, among other serious damage, they called it “The Rattle of the Bay”. That was in 1989. I was living in a new 2 story house in Turlock California and getting ready to watch the World Series game when it hit. Turlock is around 100 miles from San Francisco and the chandelier in the staircase was swinging back and forth at least 90 degrees. That one was scary as we watched the news showing the damage and all the people who were trapped in their cars just driving home from work on the Embarcadero freeway. I experienced a few more including another serious one in Napa in 2014. I was supposed to drive to Napa that day for a car show. It woke us up in the middle of the night in Dixon California. That show was canceled as many of the old buildings in downtown lost brick facades and that is where the car show was to be. It could have been worse if it happened 10 hours later. I could have lost my Studebaker!
I want to close this story with some kudos to the Sapulpa road crew. Our street is no stranger to potholes. We’ve been here almost 3 years and they did come out around a year ago and filled some of them, but not all of them. Last week we were driving home from Costco and right after I turned off Hwy 117 to my street, I hit a pothole that was deep enough to make a huge noise when we hit it. I knew somebody’s car would get damaged by this one so I filled out a form with the City to fix it. Not only did they respond to my request within minutes, but I noticed it was fixed within a day. I was very impressed and pleased with their quick response. And that takes care of the Road part of the story…
