Re: Recollecting the March 22, 1957 5.3 Earthquake

03/23/13 - posted by Patty (Reed) DeVost

Well Paul, I have many of the same memories about the quake in 1957, and also about Sister Madeline Marie being one of the nicest nuns we had in all of our St. Thomas Apostle years. Other than a few, it went down hill from there, but I'm pretty darn sure that some of the nuns had the same opinions of me as I did of them. The only thing I'll add about the experience of the quake and being in school, was that at some point I recall being told to kneel under our desks and pray. My parents owned a retail business on Balboa Street between 37th and 38th Avenues, and when they let us go home that day, I walked in to my parents store (REED'S LIQUOR'S) and what a mess it was! The bottles on both sides of the store had come crashing down onto the floor. The smell was awful and it was like a flood of booze, with a blend of wine and tobacco. The broken glass was everywhere. From that day on, there was wire across all of the shelves that went high up the wall on both sides of the narrow store. If I close my eyes, I can still see and smell the devastation.