Our Time by Carol Marshall
Woman 1: Survivor of 06
quake
Woman 2: modern day woman with problems of her own
Woman 3: 1960’s woman remembering the day Kennedy was shot
(includes some actual and embellished accounts from 06 quake survivor Mrs James Watkins)
No props really...
Woman 1: I woke up to the sound of crashing furniture and the plates and
cups downstairs breaking. The meteorological record announced later
that there were seven shocks in ten minutes, seventeen in the whole day, and
numerous slight shocks every day since. I felt very calm, paralyzed at first…
Across the stage Woman 2 walks on stage, she has a phone in her hand.
She dials and talks into it.
Woman 2: (calm) So can you
please tell me the results now? Uh huh. Uh huh… Ok, yes, I will
call Dr. Owens tomorrow
(she puts the phone down, and is obviously distraught)
Woman 1: I briefly had hoped that the damage was limited to furniture,
but of course that wasn’t true. In a few moments I noticed five billowy
dark clouds rising in different directions, and I realized it was smoke. The
great fire had begun, though no one realized what it would be.
Woman 2: (again into the phone): Hi Mom, well...it’s not good
news. Right, they say yes and it’s spreading. Mom...Mom..., I didn’t mean to frighten you. Mom don’t cry…
Woman 1: How can someone see that coming? Not only the earthquake
but the fires? We had no idea, I had felt many small shocks in my life,
but nothing like that.
Woman 2: (phone) Mom I can’t handle this right now I mean I have
David’s parents coming, and the trip to New York. What am I going to do now?
All our plans…
Woman 3: The holidays were coming and we were looking forward to them. Then there was announcement over the loud speaker at school, for all of us to go to the gym. I was in 10th grade at the time. I thought it was another duck and cover thing, you know a drill. But my teacher was so solemn. I knew it was something else.
Woman1: They started the dynamiting pretty quick. When the fires started roaring they started taking down houses to control it. They said ours would have to go. Jim and I filled out suitcases with what we could. Money was a problem, the richest people had nothing now that the banks were gone. I had managed to save $200 that I kept in a box downstairs. One young guy had a quarter in his pocket and would proudly announce that he was young and didn’t need more. I wonder what happened to him? The sound of the trunks dragging along the streets is a sound I will not soon forget.
Woman 2: (Into the phone again) Mom, hi. Well we are starting the Chemo in a week. I’m scared Mom. I hear it can be worse than the disease. I know you’ll be there, but I just want this over with. I just want things the way they were.
Woman 3: They announced to all of us that the President had been shot and we were to go home. When I got home Mom was glued to the TV, and then when Walter Cronkite told us he was dead, it was like the earth moved under you. You couldn’t believe it. Mom didn’t stop crying for days. She didn’t even vote for him, but got to like him quite a lot. It was such a hopeful time, it really was…and you couldn’t help but feel things would never quite be the same.
Woman 1: The sky was
lit up with this awful glare. We could
hear the crackle of flames, the crash of falling roofs and walls, the roar of
dynamite. Showers of cinders fell over us, and continued to fall for three days
and nights.
Woman 2: (into phone) Hi Mom....well I threw up all night. But the Doctors said that is to be expected. I had the nurse with me Mom, I know you will be here later today. No it's ok, really. I just want to see you today.
Woman 1: Once we got a look at the city the devastation was overwhelming. Everything was gone but some parts of Pacific Heights. The very poor from south of market were in tents at Unions Sq. And other make shift tent communities. Strangely enough the Victory statue at Union Sq was still standing. It did make me smile when I saw it, one of the first things that did in a long time. Also some people were making the best of things, I saw a sign on one tent that said “rooms for rent, with a view”. There was actual laughter.
Woman 2: (into phone again. A little lighter) Hi Mom. Yes I am doing ok, really… I get nauseous from the Chemo. But I am hanging in, I am really. You know something, I have to share this with you, people from my office shaved their heads too when my hair started falling out, you know for support. Yes, …really. I was so touched. One guy said his girlfriend wanted him to earlier, that she finds Bruce Willis sexy..I found that a little hard to believe but who knows!
Woman 1: The spirit of the people was great, I never saw a woman cry or a man lose his temper. People were fleeing the flames saying nothing of their loss but laughing at how happy they were to have their lives. Humanity has showed up well. I am proud to call myself a San Franciscan. I’m not saying we didn’t have hard times, but I know we will rebuild. I’ll bet you in a hundred years time there will be more interesting building and places to see and eat in San Francisco and some will even have forgotten about this mess we are in.
Woman 3: I don’t think it fully kicked in until I saw Jack Ruby kill Oswald on TV. Then it all seemed real. Strangely something that surreal made it seem real. Not sure why.
Woman 1: We are under martial law, and we have a vigilance committee. Sentries are posted on every corner, and it is comforting in the night to hear them call, “Twelve o'clock and all is well." Yesterday ten companies of Cavalry and two of Infantry came in from Vancouver, Washington. I saw them come.
Woman 2: (to phone) Hi Mom. I got the results. Yeah yeah. It’s better, it’s not perfect but at least it’s not spreading. I couldn’t have made it this far without you, really… Oh Mom, don’t cry…
Woman 1: Not less wonderful than San Francisco's heroism has been the quick generosity of the country and other countries. I believe the relief fund has reached ten million dollars. This will not last long, feeding three hundred thousand at thirty cents a day, and they must all begin again. Many trains of supplies have come in; if any one has starved, it must surely have been his own fault. Doctors and nurses have come by the train load. Stanford University was so damaged. People forget how damaged it was and San Jose. I guess cause fewer people live there.
(pause)
I walked to the ruins of our house. I
have walked miles every day. It is the only way to get anywhere. I stood and
stared at it like it was going to somehow clean itself up and be livable again
if I just stared hard enough. On Nob
Hill just above our house were the remains of the palaces of the pioneers ---
the magnificent buildings of the Bonanza Kings of 49. Some of the wonderful,
historic people we knew.
Woman 3: Watching the funeral and everyone watched
you see, It did seem an end of an era somehow.
Seeing his casket go by and Jackie in her veil. John John saluting...our John John...
(pause and all speak to audience)
Woman 3: I was in the gym when they told us…
Woman 1: I was awakened by crashing furniture
Woman 2: I got the
results on a Tuesday
Woman 1: We will rebuild
Woman 2: I will continue to fight this
Woman 3: We will carry on....
Woman 1: One minute I
was asleep
Woman 2: The next I was shattered
Woman 3:
And the next...
THE END