The "California Experience"

As many of you know, I grew up in California. Here is my story of what I call “the Great Hill Slide of 1958.”

 

We moved happily from a flat area to the hills in El Cerrito in1955, loving the fabulous view of the SanFrancisco Bay. The neighborhood, just below King Drive, was wonderful, and the house (7858 Burns Ct.) was just right for us. The grassy PG&E right of way behind us was a great playground before Moeser Lane was extended.

 

But then…heavy rains came in the winter of 1958. Our sidewalk and our patio were cracking. Our house was apparently built on top of a filled-in creek that apparently wasn’t dead!

 

We were lucky! Our house was in the middle of that creek, and we slid with it.  But the two houses below ours were at the edge of that creek and split through the middle, one with a foot-wide crack. I think they became uninhabitable. The city manager’s home below theirs was spared, I believe.

 

Things were even worse on Earl Court below us, where several homes were destroyed.

 

There were lawsuits against the city, the builder and the soil analysts. I think there was a settlement, but I don’t remember details.

 

Amazingly, we were able to find a buyer for our house. We moved to El Sobrante, near an earthquake fault below San Pablo Dam. I tell people here in the East that this was our “California experience.”