There was a California earthquake, in the year of '83
It shook the living daylights out of the Owens County Seat
Not a building still left standing when the dust had cleared away
Just a rumble in the distance all the way to San Andrea
Oh Sherman Buck was driving his old mule into town
When a big one came and shook so hard, that it knocked him to the ground
Lord there opened up a hole so big, he thought his time was up
And it swallowed up that poor old mule and it just missed Sherman Buck
Chorus
California earthquake you just don't know what you've done
We may fall off in the ocean, but you'll never make us run
You're a partner to the devil, but we ain't afraid of him
We'll build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again
Then came the quake of '99 that leveled Mission Creek
The earth was like an ocean churning, with waves of twenty feet
Lord it sounded like a thousand trains were screaming underground
Clean across to San Joachim, they heard that mournful sound
[chorus]
Then came one day the holocaust on San Francisco Bay
Ninety miles of walls came down like old Jericho that day
Might near everything the earthquake missed, a holy fire consumed
And left 'em smoke and the ashes of the dreams that can't be ruined
[chorus]
Build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again(You can hear a snippet of the Dead playing this at
this site Scroll down to Disc 12, and its the 12th track.)
Today is the 99th Anniversary of the
Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.
This morning, the ever-dwindling handful of survivors gathered at Lotta's Fountain on Market St. The SFFD hit their sirens before dawn, and no true San Franciscan complained. The Fireplug That Saved The Mission will get a new coat of gold paint. And people all over the Bay Area will try to remember when the last time they changed the batteries in their earthquake kit was.
Tomorrow, we'll go back to our usual blissful ignorance. Knowing that the Big One could hit in the next few seconds, or not for twenty years. That's part of life here on the Ring of Fire. The best image ever to explain how we deal with quakes comes from the 1989 Loma Prieta Quake. Game 3 of the World Series was set to start at Candlestick Park, with the Oakland A's playing the Giants in the Bay Bridge Series. Then the quake hit. A fan grabbed a piece of cardboard and a marker..
( and made history ) ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
