In 1982 I had a bright blue Chevy Malibu. It was beautiful... and in need of a wax job. So I took it to my shop.... we had a service area there for changing oil, etc I began waxing my car.
I was bent over waxing the lower part of the right front fender when I realized something was odd..... the car was waxing itself! No, I wasn't high. I stopped for a moment to contemplate and the car was, indeed, moving up and down and waxing itself. Then I felt a little woozie - I looked up and the ground looked like the ocean, there were waves. The side of my shop was waving in and out. I put two and two together and came to the conclusion that this was not normal.
Yes, it was an earthquake... the big Coalinga quake of 1982. -
Bonus story. That night my cousin and I drove to our ranch near Coalinga to hunt the following morning. On the way to our ranch we closed down the bar at Harris Ranch. When we arrived at out cabin we tossed our sleeping bags on some cots and passed out. The next morning - - -
Just about the time nighttime turns grey readying for dawn we were awoken. Our cabin, (tiny little cabin), was built on a concrete foundation.... our cots, the two my cousin and I were sleeping on, were doing battle. Allow me to explain - they were bouncing and bumping into each other... WHAM, WHAM, WHAM.... over and over. My cousin and I put two and two together and concluded - "Wow, this is the all time worst hangover". We were wrong.... well, sort of. It WAS a bad hangover but the hangover wasn't causing our cots to battle -
It was the aftershock. My ranch was directly over the epicenter of the earthquake that had disturbed the waxing of my car the day before. It was nearly as powerful as the original quake.
The mountains on my ranch are made of sandstone... not very sturdy. We had chunks of sandstone break off the cliffs and fall down the mountains..... chunks the size of a house!
We kept to our plan and went hunting and then that night drove out.... it wasn't easy. Our ranch had rocks the size of a house, several of them, on the dirt roads blocking our way. We had to 4 wheel around them. On the main road, pavement, same thing.... we had to 4 wheel around those as well.
Yes... that was quite a memorable car wax! - JamesJM
