The Clock Strikes Sunset
by Trinity Partamian
"Wow! I hope one of these lunatics don't hit me!"
Nishan Partamian is a middle aged man, also known as my dad, is currently living in Southern California and working as an investment counselor, and is happily married with three children, two girls, one being fourteen and the other twelve, with the boy being seventeen, and on the brink of adulthood. As of now, they live in a white house with a bright red door, surrounded by shrubs and trees, in La Cañada Flintridge. Out of the many earthquakes he has been in, he says that the Pasadena, California earthquake on December 3, 1988; has a life scarring memory he will never forget, with a magnitude of 4.9 and depth of 16 km, with evidence of strike-slip motion on the Raymond Fault
It was around 6 or 7 am, along with many other men and woman, Partamian was driving downtown for work, just like any other early, Saturday morning, for not just him but hundreds of people who had just woken up to get to their jobs, until it struck, and thousands of people’s lives changed in a various drastic seconds. He remembers speeding down the highway in his car, no not legit speeding, at least not like ticket worthy, and then he realized that cars were beginning to drift out of their lanes, but thankfully due to the traffic that had been building up to head into the new area, no one crashed into each other since they were moving very slowly, and his first thought was “Wow, his is freaky, I hope these lunatics don’t smash their cars into me.” And in which, he carefully swerved his car away from the drifters, to avoid getting hurt or having car damage, though it was quite strange due to the driver’s seemed to be completely out of control, and that’s when he realized, “Oh shoot, an earthquake is happening!”
At first he was astonished and scared that an earthquake was happening while he was on the freeway, with thousands of other terrified and lost people who were doing nothing but trying to regain control of their cars and not swerve left or right since the freeway was currently uneven with the mild shaking currently going on. No one hopped out of their cars since again, they were moving very slowly since of traffic, and were just very focused on preventing an accident and getting out safely. In the end, after the shaking had stopped, and traffic finally released and allowed people to get on with their lives and get to their jobs, confused people finally figured out that it was an earthquake, like Partamian had while still on the road.
His advice for if you were to be in an earthquake and happened to be on the road, freeway, or just in a transportational vehicle, is for you and everyone in the car to remain calm, and if you happen to not be the driver, don’t freak out, because they most likely are as nervous as you are and it’ll just make the situation even worse. Also, avoid big turns or switching lanes, since if you choose to swerve either right or left, it is very risky since you will most likely slide into another car or anything else in the way. But, if you absolutely hate earthquakes and have no interest in these tips or ways to stay safe and calm, then move out of California and never come back, because living here, you”ll have plenty of earthquakes in your lifetime, big and small.
Partamian pictured below, the one with the
glasses