Tremors

Woke last night like someone was shaking me awake, only it was the bed doing the shaking. My wife was sound asleep and I lay there a few confused seconds trying to figure out how she was rattling the bed. Then it subsided and right off I noticed the roosters crowing in the dark. After a while slipped back into sleep.

Turned on the TV this morning and they said there had been a 5.3 earthquake centered in Illinois, I, about 200 miles north from here. So, my first tremors.

Around 10:15 this morning felt an aftershock, my log cabin office vibrated with a dizzying effect for a few seconds. It rated around 4.5, depending on the source.

We’re about 200 miles southeast of Reelfoot Lake, epicenter of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12, strongest to ever hit the United States.

A few years ago a guy from Texas came wandering through here, retracing his roots. His family had been Tennessee pioneers, settled in Liberty for a while before they pushed further West. Had a diary from that period. They wrote about strange days when the trees swayed back and forth on the hillsides like thy were riding an ocean wave.

Must have been quite unsettling to see, and feel, but not know.