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Show Mrs. Corey's Story - 2 I lived with Mama and my sister,Ruby, in a three story frame house on the comer of Pine and Powell Streets. We weren't renters. We bought that house. All of us had jobs and we worked hard to buy the house and furnishings. We thought we had the best, especially our new piano and sewing machine. Some of the rooms on the first and second floors we rented out to roomers, and we mostly lived on the third floor. It was a good arrangement. Oh, I must tell you about my rope! I'd had a friend who'd saved herself from a fire by sliding down a rope. So I bought- a good, heavy rope and tied one end to the leg of my iron bedstead and coiled the rest of it on the floor. I hoped I'd never have to use it. "What kind of work did we do? I don't remember what Mama and Ruby did, but I was a bookeeper - a bookeeper for the largest mail order house west of Chicago. I'd worked for them for three years. Our building was big - covered half a block and was three stories high - down at 25 Market Street, near The Elnbarcadero. Just the day before the earthquake, we shipped the largest order we'd ever had. It went to some mission groups in the South Seas Islands, Now, I must tell you about our cats. There were about a dozen of them in the basement of our building. These cats not only kept the mice away, but were friends to all who worked there." Mrs. Corey softly played a ripple on the piano keys. She stopped and said, " The night before the earthquake, I walked home from work, as I usually did. It seemed to me to be the most beautiful evening I'd ever seen. You know San Francisco in April - clear, warm, the cold summer fogs hadn't come yet» Later that evening, Mama and Ruby and I sat out on our little porch and enjoyed the sights and smells. I felt so good I went inside and played our new piano. I'm glad I didn't know then that it was the last time. |