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THROWBACK THURSDAY 
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An 11 year old girl asked me yesterday what was a big event that happened to me when I was 11.......This is the event that immediately came to mind, but I didn't tell her about it, because I didn't want to upset her.....I was traumatized by the event as was everyone else in Vancouver........I just happened to witness it. It was a sunny, early June day in 1958....After school. I went to Ridgeview Elementary and that day, I went to my friend's house after school......We lived on the side of a mountain overlooking Burrard Inlet and Stanley Park. My friend's father had an amazing telescope set up on the deck. he enjoyed my keen interest and gave me permission to use it every time I went for a visit. That day, the telescope was set up to watch the re-construction of the Second Narrows Bridge. I had my eye glued to the lens for at least 10 minutes, watching the steel workers in all their gear scrambling over the girders high above the water, when the bridge collapsed and 80 men fell, hit the water and disappeared....I remember at first feeling disbelief ...like I was watching TV or...then the horror began penetrating my mind and I started screaming and the father was there and I couldn't remove myself from the lens and he had to lead me away and the parents and my friend took me into the house......Surreal.....18 workers died......The whole city was in mourning....The bridge was re-named Steel Workers Memorial Bridge.... In 2000, I was shooting a movie in Vancouver...up the Fraser River.. I was staying in a big hotel near Stanley Park and morning call time was usually around 5 am.. A van would pick us up and drive us to the studio....A dozen people...a couple of stars complaining about their coffee, usually some rowdy stunt doubles, but mostly people like me who were still half asleep.....I had very little sleep that night...That morning, the traffic was crazy busy. The driver always listened to the ongoing traffic report, racing to the studio in a contest with the other van drivers... .That morning it was really noisy in the van so the driver turned the radio up. The traffic reporter kept changing his mind about what exit was better and the driver was yelling at the stunt doubles to keep it down and then the traffic report was yelling to get to the Steelworkers Memorial Bridge and something came over me and I burst into tears..
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I remember some years ago seeing a program on that, and you witnessed it live, no wonder you broke down in tears.
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I think it was 11 people that died in Ketchikan and my CB lady was OK....My BIL got on his CB radio a few days later and found that out for me....
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I just googled The Great Alaska Earthquake and it was 1964 ..at 5:38 on Good Friday, so my sister only had one child then and he would be under a year old.........131 people died including from the Tsunami.
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What a tragic and frightening event for anyone to witness, especially a young child. Terrifying to say the least.
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Sorry to hear that. I don't remember much when I was 11 years old !
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5 years later, we were living in Prince Rupert, 100 mile South of Alaska. I was baby-sitting my older sister's children. I was a CB radio enthusiast and my sister had a very good receiver, so after the kids were asleep, I started trying to find something interesting ..tuned into my regulars and was tooling around... and suddenly an unfamiliar channel came in loud and clear....A MAYDAY call from Ketchikan Alaska.....This woman was describing an earthquake disaster in the moment..."MAYDAY MAYDAY...I live on a cliff overlooking the ocean in KETCHIKAN ALaska and the cliff just sheared off that had 2 of my neighbour's houses on it and I might me next MAYDAY MAYDAY.....and so on..over and over on and on....relay this call relay this call.....I phoned the RCMP and then the radio station and I was trying to maintain the steadfastness of the MAYDAY lady, but when my sister and husband got home, I was a mess...I had lost contact with her.....an hour later we were warned of a Tsunami coming our way and went with my BIL down to the docks to secure their skiff....The bigger boats were all heading into open water to ride out the wave, there were fire-fighting boats at the ready clustered around the floating gas dock that had been towed into the harbour ....It was a fishing town, so there were hundreds of boats....I watched from my parent's house up on the hill, when the wave came in....The skiffs that had not ben either puled up on shore or put out to sea, were smashed against the dock...I sow a couple of them getting thrown into the air and smash on the dock. I think it was 11 people that died in Ketchikan and my CB lady was OK....My BIL got on his CB radio a few days later and found that out for me....
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What a tragic and frightening event for anyone to witness, especially a young child. Terrifying to say the least.
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I remember some years ago seeing a program on that, and you witnessed it live, no wonder you broke down in tears.
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Sorry to hear that. I don't remember much when I was 11 years old !
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