Part II ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The San Francisco Earthquake I was living with my Uncle Hugh Roberts and his wife Jennie and their two children, Hugh Jr. and Galdys, at the time of the earthquake, (April 11/12, 1906) which occurred early in the morning. My true recollection was of Uncle Hugh carrying me and looking at our house burning (my Dad would have been about four years old at the time.) We followed the crowd and crossed the railroad tracks and saw the firemen fighting to save the fire station. We followed the throng up the hill. When we got there I remember the people standing around and sitting on the ground looking down at the city burn. I can remember the red glow of the fire at night and my Aunt Jennie soothing me to sleep. I remember that we had a tent and the men putting it up. It was a white wall tent and we also had cots. There was one cooking place for the group quite a distance from our tent. I tagged along with Aunt Jennie to this place once. This day she was there cooking and Uncle Hugh was talking with some men, the other kids being quite a bit older were around playing with other kids. So I took off to see Aunt Jennie cook and headed for the place. I didn't find it and wandered down the hill. I remember walking around and the smell of smoking fires and how tired I was. A soldier came along and I ran. He caught me and asked me some questions. He finally carried me to some place where there were tents and took me inside of one tent. He made me lie on a cot and gave me some water, then another soldier came and he questioned me and the other went and when he came back he had a plate of food, which he gave me. They talked with me and questioned me and one soldier disappeared and later he came back with more (food). (Dad always had high respect for the military and I believe he always wanted to be a soldier. In World War II he joined the New York State Guard - which had replaced the National Guard when it went off to war. Dad worked his way from private to major during his service. He also got me involved in the Guard and instilled in me a feeling of service and patriotism. Bud Roberts) They talked and I remember it started to get dark and I was sleepy. A soldier came and woke me up and put a blanket around me and started to carry me. We got to a place where ther was a boat and after talking, we got on and he had me sit on his lap on the trip. the boat stopped and he picked me up and crried me. We finally came to some men and women, not soldiers, and they told him where to take me. It seemed to me it was a big house and he took me inside and put me down with the blanket around my shoulders. Then a woman took my hand and took me into a dark room. She walked me to some place and took the blanket and put it on the floor and told me lay on it. Then I had noticed there were some others laying down too. So I did and then she left telling me to be quiet. She came back later with a cup of something and told me to drink it. I did and didn't care for it, but did swallow it. Not until years later I discovered what the taste was, when I had hot chocolate milk and it was scorched. I played with the children the next day and had fun. Several days later a doctor examined me and they took me to a big white house and they put me in a crib. They discovered I had typhoid fever and when I was recovering one day, a man came in and questioned me, my father's name and my mother's name. All I could say was Mommy and Poppa. They left the room and I saw them talking to a man and I recognized him as Uncle Hugh. So I made a racket calling Uncle Hugh and Aunt Jennie. They brought my Uncle in and he hugged me and finally Aunt Jennie came in and I hugged her. After that display they were able to take me home. Years later they said they couldn't shut me up, I was so glad to be with them. They took me across the bay and they were living in a crude house, only a ground (dirt) floor. I remember going with them to our (old) house and Uncle Hugh digging through the ashes and he finally found some money he had that had melted together. Six years later when Rafael and I were staying with them just before we were shipped to Vermont, they were surprised the things I could recall, especially the money that Uncle Hugh dug up. He knew where it was but didn't take it with him when he left and the house was on fire during the earthquake. They were surprised that I remembered them going to the Police Station to get Hugh, their son, who had been arrested with a gang of kids that got into some trouble. end of Part II