April 21- No More Quisp, So Pass the Quake

The above cereal reference aside, I’m STILL trying to convince some of our friends that you COULD notice the earthquake that make its way through our area last Friday morning around 4:30 in the morning or so. Either they are very deep sleepers, or their apartments and homes in the city didn’t get as much of a shaking in their areas-because they didn’t feel or hear anything. I was awakened by a rattling sound, which turned out to be the wire from a set-top antenna vibrating against the television set (yes, I’ll need a digital conversion box for that set.) Other rattling sounds around the house, along with an upset pet, seemed to indicate a mild quake- that must have lasted between one and two full minutes! That’s a pretty long tremor. No damage in my home, thankfully- actually, I don’t think there was any damage in the immediate Chicago area. No visions of “Cloverfield” or our old pal Godzilla making his way towards Berwyn (nor that giant, eyebeam-shooting chicken of the Sven t-shirt commercials…)
The last quake I remember hitting the area, maybe in the late 80s,seemed to last only about ten or fifteen seconds. I remember I was sitting on a couch that had a fold-away mattress in its innards, which, I think, made the movement more noticeable- as I started feeling the shaking, and was about to ask who was shaking the couch- until I noticed I was the only one sitting on it! Again, no damage occurred then- mostly some noise and a little movement.
That was NOT the case for some friends of mine, who, several years ago, had just moved out to California, near the Los Angeles area- and experienced a much larger, scarier earthquake than they had ever experienced here. It occurred early in the morning, and knocked stuff off shelves and off the walls…and certainly made them wonder if moving to the west coast for a cool job had really been the right move. Of course, it was a good move for them- but that sizable quake was a pretty bizarre welcome to their new home for them!
One of my co-workers noticed Friday’s quake- but thought that the noise might be squirrels in his roof! Another slept through it, but may have had a subconscious reaction- because he was dreaming that he was driving and hit a cougar (must be pretty cool to have dreams as current as today’s headlines!) And- yet other co-workers who live in high-rises right here in the city…slept right through it, and didn’t notice a thing. I always thought being higher up, in buildings that have a “sway” factor for high winds, would almost guarantee that you’d feel a tremor…or, does the solid concrete grid in the city almost insulate them from what was a minor tremor by the time it traveled here from the downstate epicenter?
Maybe we’ll find out next time- but we’ll have to wait- it always seems like it’s ten and twenty years between quakes in this area!(…which means I won’t have to worry about coming up with more earthquake material for a while…)