I was in Palo Alto about 10 miles from the San Andreas fault line which ran roughly along the peak of the Santa Cruz mountains, all the way up to the City (Skyline Blvd). I was leaving my job at Syntex (the drug company that invented birth control pills) in the Stanford Industrial Park. As I walked through the parking lot on my way to my parked car, I felt the earth rumble beneath my feet and I saw the tall light polls in the parking lot sway like crazy. I got in my car and I drove home (about 2 miles away). That's all I ever knew until I arrived home and turned on the news. Pretty lucky, hugh?

and it was a perfect "I'm stark nekkid, what do I do now?" moment. Fortunately, the epicenter was far enough that once the glass was swept up, the bookshelves righted and restocked, and the floors mopped clean of what had been inside the glass, there was no damage.

Still, I've always been impressed by that timing. I was watching news about it from Boston after I'd gotten home at midnight.

and, with absolute predictability, the cable went out shortly thereafter, depriving me of CNN, etc.

Baseball fans note: Here in 2015, the National League championship series doesn't even start until tonight!

edit: Non-baseball fans note: The Series was between the SF Giants and Oakland A's. The quake struck at 5:04 PM PT, right before the start of Game 3 at the old Candlestick Park in SF.

undergrad students if they remember the 'World Series' quake.

I remember it clearly though: I was passing through the kitchen on my way to go to class (chemistry, as I recall) when the cabinets popped open and all the glasses came leaping out. Luckily, the only damage aside from the mess was a few scratches from the broken glass (unlike those dramatic images at the link)...

I was still at work in Nob Hill. We didn't feel it like the rest of the city. I do remember my boss getting us to a safe place. It didn't hit me until about 30 minutes later when I saw all the people from the financial district walking home. Literally hundreds of people walking, some kinda like zombies. The buses weren't running. I lived across the street from where I worked. I was married then and my husband didn't get home until about 8:30pm. Our neighbors husband worked in Silicon Valley and he didn't get home until well after midnight. They shut off all the electricity and gas in our part of town for 3 days. We didn't know much of what was going on outside of the city at that time. I remember how dead quiet it was the next day. Anyone who had a way to get to the Marina went out there to help. The guys at Swan's Oyster Depot on Polk donated all their left over fish to St. Anthony's dining hall. (They were great guys.)

As hard as we had it in the city, Watsonville took it the worst. The Rolling Stones donated a lot of money to that community.

I moved to Florida in July 1989 specifically because I felt I was getting too blasé about Bay Area earthquakes.

Estimating earthquake magnitudes was becoming a routine parlor game to me, until I realized that I was trivializing their potential.

I had the World Series tuned in on the TV when it hit. Glad I wasn't around at ground zero to experience it.

Thought the building was going to come down.

I was just about ready to go home so I could watch the World Series, then the building started to shake for a good long time. A big, heavy bookcase in my office nearly fell over but I reached out with one hand to steady it while holding onto the door frame with the other. I was really jostled around -- it was quite a ride.

From my office I could see the double decker Embarcadero freeway was still standing, but from the other side of the building the corner of the Golden State Bank Building facade had scattered over Front Street. One of the workers on the third floor peered out at the rubble through the open space that seconds ago was a wall. It was an incredible sight.

The elevators were stopped, so we evacuated using the fire escape -- a very long, narrow and claustrophobic descent. I was soooooo happy to finally hit the Sacramento Street exit. Then I walked home - no Muni. The electrified busses were stopped in their tracks, a few on the steepest hills of the city. Drivers placed wooden wedges under the tires in case parking brakes failed. I also saw some families loading up their cars to get out of town.

From my apartment building rooftop there was an awesome view of the Marina fires. Lombard Street, leading to the Golden Gate Bridge, was jammed with cars for about a full day. Electricity wasn't restored in our neighborhood until Thursday afternoon, but we had gas for cooking and hot water, thanks to solar heat.

I was 400 miles away (in SoCal) and still felt the quake.

Working late, so we had the ball game on the TV - saw everyone freak out in San Fran on TV- and 30 seconds later, we felt the quake.

Like I said - 400 miles away. By the time it hit us, it was still a magnitude 4.5. I can only imagine what it was like to be at ground zero.