Tuesday nights earthquake stirred vague memories of another I experienced in Derbyshire – or did I?
A helpful map in yesterdays paper confirmed my memory. Derby, 1957 – 5.3 compared to this latest 5.2, & with the epicenter an awful lot closer to home
We were in the chemistry lab at school. All the bottles – stored on open shelves in those days – rattled, but none fell. I think equilibrium was otherwise maintained
Earthquakes are quite common in South America of course. I remember 2 at home, both around midnight when I was asleep
During the first I half woke thinking that my husband must have forgotten his key. Went blearily to open the front door, stood there trying to comprehend why there was no one on the step, then went back to bed
The second also brought me half awake. For some reason I went to push an old fashioned travellers trunk against the side of my daughters bed – she was blissfully asleep. In retrospect this was really stupid – if she had been rolled out of her bed, falling on to the trunk could have caused serious injury, perhaps even breaking her back. But again, I just went blearily back to bed
I slept, oblivious, right through the most powerful one of all in Caracas in 1968. This would make a good story, were it not that serious damage & loss of life were caused to those not fortunate enough to be sleeping in a modern downtown hotel
Related post: Small earth quake in England
