Are You Shakin’? and The Year is 1987

The 5.8 magnitude of yesterday’s earthquake really got people’s attention reaching north into Toronto, Canada, rippled westward to Indiana, and stretching south as far as Savannah, Georgia. It’s reported this is one the strongest quakes felt along the east coast since WWII.

Here in the Tennessee Valley, it was a total mystery to me until I received a SMS reporting the breaking news of the Pentagon’s evacuation. The one good thing stemming from yesterday’s rumble was for a few minutes those nut burgers (often called Politicians) couldn’t do anything to screw the country over but with that kind of phenomenally it rattled some people’s nerves.

I remembered when I was little (grade school age) living in southern West Virginia experiencing an earthquake for the first time.  I had just settled into bed for the night. My mom was busy in the kitchen when I felt my bed vibrate. It seemed to last forever but actually it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds.

I laid there under my covers too afraid to move.  What was that?  Where monsters under my bed?  Was it a demon playing tricks on me?  Yes, I thought that.  Slowly, I slipped from beneath my covers and open my bedroom door to see what my mom was doing.  She was cleaning the kitchen and didn’t seem frightened Maybe, I imagined the whole thing I thought and went to sleep.

The next morning at school, kids were buzzing about the news.

“Did you feel it?”
“Feel what?” I asked.
“The earthquake!”

So that’s what it was…an earthquake.  But…we weren’t in California.  Most of us, kids, felt that small tremor during the night.  Only the very still of creatures would have noticed it.  That’s why my mom didn’t even flinch.  You know what I mean, right?  It’s like when you’re on the edge of falling asleep or have been asleep things always seem louder and the smallest movement seems greater.  That’s why it felt like my bed was walking across the floor and my mother was in her state of ignorance because she was too busy to notice the earth moving beneath her feet.

That night has forever lived in my mind.  I hadn’t thought much about it until I visited Patrice this morning to hear of her own scary encounter yesterday.  Earthquakes are kind of freaky, especially when you live in part of the country where this is the last thing on your mind.

I’m participating in Patrice’s newly formatted weekly meme, Chats on the Farmhouse Porch.  You may use her questions to launch your own daily post, but please be sure to display her blog button and kindly link up.

Grab a cup of coffee and join me, as we head to Patrice’s farmhouse porch to do a little mid-week chatting, shall we? (Click the below button to link up with Patrice)

This week’s questions:

1. What’s your favorite kind of soup?  My favorite soup is broccoli cheddar, but I don’t make this too often because it’s so high in calories.  For canned, store-bought soups my all time favorite would be tomato soup. I love serving it with peanut butter sandwiches or grilled cheese sandwiches.
2. Do you prefer a movie or a play?  I’d have to say, I’m a movie goer if I had to pick.  However, I haven’t been to the theater since 1990. We buy all of our movies when they release.  This is not only less inexpensive initially speaking, but it’s ours forever and we can watch it many times. Plus, it’s convenient to stop and start as many times as we want. And…we can bring our own snack food.
3. What was your most unusual birthday celebration? (It can be the most unusual celebration you attended if you wish.)  Unusual birthday celebrations…unfortunately I have none to report, but for our oldest daughter’s birthday…gee I can’t remember which one now.  This is good now, but we had an “Over the Hill” theme for her and she was in her teens…early teens maybe.  We bought her a tube of Polident toothpaste and some other funny things like that.  She thought it was such a hoot.  Now, who’s getting old here? My memory isn’t all that cracked up to what it use to be.  Mind you, it’s never been all that great, but now…*roll eyes* it’s horrible!
4. What position were you in your family – oldest, middle, youngest, only?  I’m the first-born and first grandkid for my maternal grandparents.  I remember at my Great-Grandma’s funeral, my grandma introduced me to an elderly family member who I didn’t know, as her first grandchild.  A very young cousin said, “How did you get to be so old?”  I was hardly old at the time, as I was barely in my 20s.  But, it was so funny all the same.
5. Please finish this: Star shine. Star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight…I wish for a million dollars so my husband wouldn’t have to work, so we might become debt-free, so we can ease the financial burdens on our family members, so we can reach out to strangers who are without in a big way, and to have continued good health and happiness all the day of my life, my family’s life, and my friends who are all so dear to me.

We bought our Amethyst Toyota Turbo Supra but as the year weaned on we decided to get conventional and traded down for a Camry.  It was the year of Robin’s 10th high school reunion. All we could think of was, “Where did the decade go?”  We learned that fall, we would be parents.  These are my personal memories of 1987, but catch these flashback moments!

The Cost of Living something we’ll never see again was…

• • The average income per year was $24,350
  • The average cost of a new home was $92,000
  • The average cost of a new car $10,305
  • The average price of a gallon of gas $0.89 (WOW, cheap!)
  • To mail a letter first class cost $0.24 – Don’t tell me you don’t know what snail mail is!!!

World Events I remembered…

• • The world population reaches 5,000,000,000
  • Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut
  • The first naked eye observation of a supernova
  • A ferry in Belgium capsizes drowning 180
  • Margaret Thatcher elected Prime Minister in the UK
  • Fox Broadcasting debuts
  • Philippines ferry accident claiming 4,000 lives

Interesting Pop Culture…

• • Prozac introduced in the US
  • Jim Bakker, TV Evangelist, scandal hits the fan
  • The Simpson’s TV series debuted

A Few of our Favorite Movies….

• • Fatal Attraction
  • Beverly Hills Cop II
  • The Untouchables
  • Stakeout  (still one of our favorites – great!)
  • Lethal Weapon (dittos here)
  • The Last Emperor
  • Wall Street

Some Pop Music was (still is)…

• • Michael Jackson “BAD”
  • Billy Vera & the Beaters “At This Moment”
  • Fleetwood Mac “Little Lies“
  • Heart “Alone”
  • Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”
  • U2 “With or Without You”
  • Lionel Richie “Hello”
  • The Bangles “Walk Like An Egyptian”
  • Madonna “Open Your Heart”
  • Starship “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”
  • George Michael “Faith”
  • Arthea Franklin & George Michael “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me”
  • Gregory Abbott “Shake You Down”
  • Cutting Crew “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight”
  • Bob Seger “Shakedown”
  • Los Lobos “La Bamba”
  • Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes “I’ve Had the Time of My Life”
  • Belinda Carlisle “Heaven is a Place on Earth”

More Wednesday blog hop fun…

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