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Welcome to California
Submitted by Isabel Polvorosa
District Services
October 17, 1989 around 5 pm, I was working the Computer Operator
night shift at Chabot and had just come from the vault in building
200, where I picked up my tapes to backup all the work that was done
that day at Chabot and Las Positas. This was done on the DEC10, and
the tapes were on reels that were about 12 inches around. Well, I
went to our office in room 312 and started to load my tape. I
couldn’t get the tape mounted because the darn DEC10 wouldn't stand
still. Well, not only was the DEC10 moving, but so was the whole
room……EARTHQUAKE…… and boy did it roll. When it stopped, I tried to
call my daughter, because she was going to the World Series game in
San Francisco, and I was concerned about how much damage had
occurred around the bay area. Well, the phone wasn’t working in our
office, so I went to 200 to use the pay phone. Standing with a death
grip on his desk and his face white with terror was our brand new
President of a few weeks, Terry Dicianna (he had come from Texas). I
went in and asked if he was ok. All he could say was "What was
that?" I said: "An earthquake, and a pretty good one too, and you
will experience some more aftershocks." He said: "there’s more
coming?" "Yep, you just have to ride them out." Well, he got whiter.
I asked him: "Nothing like this in Texas huh?" He said: "NO, NOTHING."
So I told him: "Welcome to California." He did come to work the next
day.
About a year later our Classified Union had a BBQ and invited staff
and Terry. We had steaks, sausage, roasted onions, and roasted
peppers; Terry's comment was: "NOW THIS IS THE WAY YOU WELCOME
SOMEONE TO CALIFORNIA."
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